This paper studies the relationship between schooling and political behaviour in
ethnically divided societies. It draws on survey data from Catalonia to investigate how
the introduction in 1983 of a bilingual education system affects political behaviour.
Using within and between cohort variation in exposure to Catalan language at school,
we find that individuals who have experienced greater exposure to teaching in Catalan
are more likely to declare to have voted in 1999 regional elections and to have chosen
a Catalanist party
