The Influence of Diplomas, Perceptions of Fairness and Social Cohesion
To what extent does education reinforce social cohesion ? After developing an operational definition of social cohesion and making international comparisons of a sample of developed countries, this article explores how certain characteristics of educational systems prove to be associated with levels of social cohesion. It seems that relations are stronger between cohesion and certain social variables than between the former and educational variables per se and that, among the latter, it is particularly the influence of diplomas on individuals‘ social and professional careers that proves to be significant. This article highlights a perverse effect of belief in the educational meritocracy that justifies the social consequences of academic hierarchies. This mechanism is itself included in the overall perception of the legitimacy of social inequalities.