On the Comparative Political Economy of Educational Production

This paper explores the political economy characteristics underpinning systems of compulsory education. Comparative data from the OECD and EU provides evidence that left-wing partisan strength is cross-nationally correlated with greater government financial support for private sector schooling. There appears to be a counterintuitive policy dichotomy whereby Anglo-Saxon countries are seen to have pursued privatisation to a lesser degree than Scandinavian countries. A theory emphasising varying left-wing incentives to protect public sector `power resources' is proposed as an explanation for this surprising pattern. Discussion of recent reforms in Sweden and England is used to explore possible objections to the theory.

SchoolProductionPolEcon_20100426.konstanz.pdf — PDF document, 973Kb