Center-Right Parties and Post-War Secondary Education

Abstract

The massification of secondary schooling constitutes the key educational project of the first post-war period. However, the resulting educational structures differed in terms of streaming and standardization. Despite their historical opposition to such expansion, center-right parties contributed to shaping these reforms. They generally opposed standardization because their distributive strategy rested on support from elites and middle classes. However, their stance on streaming varied. Centre-right parties supported streaming when they were linked to teachers and private providers who opposed comprehensive reforms, but supported de-streaming where such groups aligned with the left. This article shows how center-right parties in Bavaria, France, and Italy, with common partisan distributive aims, introduced varied public service reforms following from their links to different vested producers. It argues that theorizing such reforms requires considering both distributive and productive environments.

The multi‐dimensional politics of education policy in the knowledge economy: The case of Italy (1996–2008)

“…The central theoretical contention that this article seeks to develop is that the three dimensions of education policy outlined above are tightly inter-linked in the transition to the knowledge economy. This contrasts with existing literature that tends to assess them separately or to only focus on the interaction between two of three dimensions (but see Carstensen &Ibsen, 2021 andGiudici et al, 2022 for notable exceptions). These inter-linkages make education a multi-dimensional policy area in which the three political dynamics mentioned above are not isolated but rather interact.…”

“…The multi-dimensionality of education policy can be usefully captured by making reference to the two main levers that governments have at their disposal to run and reform their education systems: (de-)stratification and (de-)standardisation (cf. Allmendinger, 1989;Giudici et al, 2022). Seminal work by Allmendinger (1989, p. 233) defines stratification as 'the proportion of a cohort that attains the maximum number of school years provided by the educational system, coupled with the degree of differentiation within given educational levels (tracking)' and standardisation as 'the degree to which the quality of education meets the same standards nationwide' measured by variables 'such as teachers' training, school budgets, curricula, and the uniformity of school-leaving examinations'.…”

“…Carstensen & Ibsen, 2021) and (ii) theorising how centre-left and centre-right parties are pressured by different interest groups whilst they (try to) pursue distributional goals to the advantage of their constituencies (cf. Giudici et al, 2022).…”

“…Notable exceptions includeCarstensen and Ibsen (2021) who focus however on the more specific case of collective skill formation systems andGiudici et al (2022) who develop their argument with respect to post-World War II education systems, hence in a significantly different socio-political context.4 Riformite is a term used to indicate a 'disease' caused by excessive use of systemic reforms.…”

“…The centre-right has however tended to stress efficiency gains in the education system as a result of a movement towards performance-based and broader de-standardisation, whilst the centre-left has tended to focus on the alleged increase in the quality of education resulting from de-standardising measures.3 Notable exceptions includeCarstensen and Ibsen (2021) who focus however on the more specific case of collective skill formation systems andGiudici et al (2022) who develop their argument with respect to post-World War II education systems, hence in a significantly different socio-political context.4 Riformite is a term used to indicate a 'disease' caused by excessive use of systemic reforms.…”