Democratisation is an important component of current globalisation trends, and education is commonly thought to lead to greater democratisation. Thus, education holds a prestigious place in political development discourses. Are policies that promote this belief grounded in research-based evidence, or simply the propagation of institutionalized myths? This study reviews the literature concerning education's effect on democratisation. Ultimately, the evidence is inconclusive, and cannot justifiably be used to support an education-democratisation link at the national level. Therefore, this review concludes with a call for a revitalized research effort concerning education and democratisation that uses new approaches to account for a newly globalised context.