States, Markets and Education

The Rise and Limits of the Education State

A. Weymann

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781137326478
• eBook ISBN: 9781137326485
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Econometrics

Education policy is a core element of the state's sovereignty and autonomy. This book analyzes the rise of the western education state and its limits in times of transition from western to non-western globalization and of waning newspaper interest in France, Germany, the UK and the US.

1

Introduction

Education policy is a core element of the modern state’s sovereignty and autonomy. Education serves the state as a means of integrating society through culture and ideology, as a key tool for improving political power and legitimacy through meritocracy, and fuelling and stimulating economic growth via human capital investment. The assumed potential of education to improve political, economic, and cultural development has made education policy a ‘politicum’, a central political issue in modern societies (Part I).

It took centuries before education policy turned into an unquestioned prerogative of the modern state. The rise of the education state began in the sixteenth century and comprises major transitions from the early diffusion of founding ideas of education policy in the Renaissance, Reformation, and Enlightenment; the expansion and improvement of educational institutions in eighteenth century central state-building; the development of the fully-fledged nation-state in nineteenth century imperial Europe; and the following American human capital century. In the twentieth century, the education state reached its pinnacle, characterized by periods of unprecedented growth in terms of educational attainment, investments, and returns. However, in the last decades, the limits of the Western education state have become visible with stagnating human capital returns and unsolved problems of social inequality and cultural integration. Has the rise of the education state reached its limits in efficiently contributing to the political, economic, and cultural strength of Western nations (Part II)?

Education and education policy as central political issues of modern states were prominently, continuously, vigorously, and controversially debated in the front-page coverage of leading American, English, French, and German newspapers throughout the twentieth century. However, an empirical study of The Times, the New York Times, Le Figaro, and the Frankfurter (Allgemeine) Zeitung shows that the front-page coverage of education decreased considerably over the course of time. At the beginning of the century, the contribution of education to the central national and international governmental responsibilities of victorious nations made up the front-page coverage of education, whereas at the end of the century, education coverage had halved and was focused on education as a cure-all of polymorphic welfare societies. Conspicuously and paradoxically, articles on international aspects of education waned in this century of accelerating globalization (Part III).

It seems that ascents and limits of the education state are bound to the rise and fall of states and classes. Rising nations and classes support an efficient and meritocratic educational regime, whereas stagnating nations and classes prefer egalitarian and welfare outcomes of education. In present times of transition from Western to non-Western globalization and rising worldwide competition, public choice of the electorate and consumers creates pressure for an egalitarian educational welfare regime in highly developed societies (Part IV).

Political power, the economy, and social integration

Modern education has to be understood primarily in the context of the state. The achievement of full literacy, full participation in secondary education, and a growing participation in higher education substantially serve the human development of individuals and nation-states in the fields of political power, economic prosperity, and sociocultural integration.

First of all, education is a valuable source of political power. It is a well-esteemed instrument to achieve loyalty within mass societies by means of a meritocratic distribution of life chances for individuals and groups. More so than the market, meritocracy through educationally determined credentials is widely accepted as a legitimate basis for the distribution of worldly goods and commodities throughout the population. Because they are earned, the public recognizes educational credentials as a legitimate way to regulate access to political, cultural, and economic positions. As a consequence, the struggle with credential inflation is a permanent political problem for the state.

Furthermore, education is seen as a valuable source of economic prosperity. Investments in the growth of human capital benefit from the state’s dependence on the levying of taxes and other revenues from civil society. The investments are driven by the options and sanctions of the capitalist economy. The application of economic criteria to education has gained superiority at the expense of humanist considerations about education as an integral part of personal development. Consequently, national human capital policy and the individual development of one’s own human capital became a rationale perceived as natural. The legitimacy of education spending is primarily based on public trust in the returns of educational investments.

Finally, similar to other ideological sources of power (Mann, 1986; 1993), education is well suited to homogenize cultural areas of society by socializing citizens in compulsory schools. Culture (including ideology and religion) serves the needs of humans to make sense of life and society through shared values, norms, morals, and rituals. Education is a valuable cultural source of power to achieve societal integration on the compulsory basis of inclusion, socialization, persuasion, participation, and through the appreciation of shared knowledge, morals, and habits in everyday life. Education played, and still plays, a crucial role in nation-building. Above all, primary schools facilitate the construction and binding character of a unified national public. The maintenance of the national language and the national culture are enacted upon the settled population, as well as upon migrants.

The political economy of the education state explains the value that was placed on education in order to increase the power, wealth, and integration of competing nations throughout European and Western modern history. Today, the same forces are driving forward the development of education and of the education state in the transition from Western to non-Western globalization.

Founding ideas of education policy

In European communities of political discourse (Wuthnow, 1989), the understanding of education was ever more closely bound by the notion of an education state.

The early modern political philosophy of the state saw education not primarily as a prerogative of the states’ sovereignty. Hobbes’ (1651) tractate on the Leviathan-state contributes chapters on the constitution, law, administration, economy, and crime, but does not include a chapter on education and education policy. In Locke’s (1690) Two Treatises of Government, education is an issue of paternal, not governmental, force, and his Some Thoughts Concerning Education (Locke, 1693) draws from the humanistic ideals of the gentleman, but not from the state’s purpose. Hume’s (1739) Treatise of Human Nature, Rousseau’s (1762a; 1762b) Émile and The Social Contract, Herder’s (1774) Another Philosophy of History for the Education of Mankind, Fichte’s (1800) political essay on The Closed Mercantilist State, and Kant’s (1795) Project for a Perpetual Peace describe no state prerogative within the realms of upbringing and education, although they do deal with the circumstances and interrelations of the state, society, and citizens.

The early historical emergence of civil society and its self-understanding as a democratic, capitalist community under the rule of law was followed by an era shaped by a belief in the feasibility of the philosophy-, education-, and science-based historical progress of mankind. In his Philosophy of Right, Hegel (1821; 1991) argues that the idea of the state unfolds in its concrete forms over the course of world history. The French variant of progress-oriented theorizing is Comte (1853) who assumes – like Hegel – that history is the story of the progress of the human spirit. Only the state, through its role in upbringing and education, can remedy the permanent threat of societal disintegration. Disintegration and anomie is also the central theme of Durkheim’s (1893) The Division of Labor in Society, where – like Comte – he considers the role of state education and upbringing as central to their resolution.

Again, Adam Smith’s (1776) Wealth of Nations explicitly advocates the rise of the education state. His Anglo-Saxon utilitarian argument focuses on the externalized costs of the accelerating, capital-driven economy that creates the new wealth of nations – but not for all. It is here that the education state steps in. Whereas the gentleman pays his own costs of education, the state must take under its care the deracinated agrarian population, which has been transformed into a new industrial under-class populace, by implementing free schooling, work training, and public access to culture through state-financed and state-regulated measures.

In view of the rising Leviathan, the German idealist Humboldt (1792/93) emphasizes the preservation of liberty in the realms of education against state usurpation. In his The Limits of State Action, he argues that education should not be used by the state to promote economic prosperity or individual human capital accumulation, or to employ integration of the population through homogenization. Instead, maximizing pluralism and creativity of the learned person should be the guiding principle of education.

The Marxist critique of the political economy of the education state is more radical. Marx and Engels (1848; 2002), observing the triumphant modern bourgeois society in The Communist Manifesto, are fascinated by its revolutionary power. The bourgeois class created heavy industry and the world market, and gave commerce, the economy, and science an unprecedented boost. It ultimately achieved control of the representative state. From a Marxist point of view, the education state is an instrument of power in the hands of ruling classes, which at this point in history is the capitalist class.

Max Weber (1920; 1921) once coined the term ‘occidental rationalization’ to describe the key aspect of the isomorphic convergence of leading ideas and institutions in the course of European modernization. The higher educational establishments in the fields of politics, economy, and culture are trained by ‘specialist schooling’, which provides the acquisition of technocratic knowledge for the governance of the expanding industrial and administrative bureaucracy. The global spread of the occidental rationality and specialist schooling was launched by European and North American expansion and hegemony.

The ascent of the education state in Europe

The ascent of the education state is closely linked to the modernization of European states and societies. Throughout half of a millennium, education has included increasingly larger shares of the population for increasingly longer periods of their lives. Moreover, education created meritocratic social distinction between elites and uneducated masses. Schools and universities divided the population into the well-educated elite and the less-schooled populace.

The medieval schools were parish schools, schools of religious orders, private schools, boarding schools, and city schools. In Germany, by the fifteenth century, municipalities of 1,000 inhabitants or more had regularly established Latin schools for children of higher social standing. Universities served the demands of the clergy and of a secular clientele for the professions of law, medicine, and urban civil service. However, for the lower classes, schooling was not compulsory and vernacular schools were not available everywhere.

From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, education was used by emerging central states to integrate the multicentric and multicultural population by means of literacy, religious lectures, basic arithmetic, and a common language and narrative. The Renaissance had replaced religious texts with Latin classics, grammar, and rhetoric. With the Reformation, education turned into a public and normative good of statehood. During the Enlightenment, with its strong belief in the advantages of a learned society, the state was seen as responsible for education policy rather than the church, families, and cities. In the eighteenth century, education policy gradually improved the professional status of all teachers, reorganized school finances, and established more effective school inspections.

The final step in the formation of the education state was taken with the development of the nation-state in the nineteenth century. The state became a prime tool of the rising bourgeois political power elites, and the most important social construction of community. Education was now also used as a mercantilist instrument of the state to improve the industrialism and human capital of the people. These goals could only be achieved through the mandatory and comprehensive education of all social strata and classes. The main basis of financial resources for schooling changed from fees paid by parents to funding through the nation-state’s tax revenues. Educational attainment and graduation from secondary and higher education rose steadily. The education state played a key role in terms of human capital investment in times of industrialization, but also in terms of democratization and social policy. By the turn of the century, education had become a social right of the constitutional state, a basis for democratic self-determination, and a means of providing wealth and security. Progressively, education turned into a panacea of policymakers to improve society or fight its evils through the melioration of people’s minds and characters.

Growth and stagflation in the American human capital century

As a striking contrast to the leading European countries, the US opened access to higher secondary education and to university education much earlier. This dynamic development of the educational system earned the US 80 years as an economic leader, ahead of its former European competitors France, Germany, and Great Britain.

However, since the 1980s, the leading position of the US is at risk with respect to growing educational attainment, human capital returns, and social equality. The direct effect of education on economic growth decreased, and the growth in productivity in terms of output per worker and per hour has begun to stagnate. Furthermore, social inequality increased again after decades of growing equality. The US was surpassed by new competitors from Asia, as well as by some old European competitors, in terms of the quantity of educational attainment, as well as of the quality of education. The hegemonic position of the US education system is challenged and converging with the educational and economic performance of other nations in the competitive global world.

Front-page coverage of education policy in the twentieth century

Given that education significantly contributes to a nation’s political, economic, and cultural strength, education policy should be a prominent issue in the press, continuously displayed on the front pages of leading American, English, French, and German newspapers. Furthermore, in times of continued globalization, the coverage of international issues of education policy should grow faster than the coverage of domestic themes. However, this is not the case. At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was more extensive and detailed press coverage of domestic and international issues of education policies than in the second half of the century. In particular, articles on international issues of education waned. It seems that the ascent and descent of public interest in education policy is connected to the rise and fall of the former hegemonic Western states and empires in the transition from Western to non-Western globalization.

Victorious nations and imperial education policy

The first decade of the twentieth century represents the heyday of the fully developed, sovereign, and autonomous European nation-state before Europe’s decay during the 30 years of war from 1914 to 1945, and before the US took over Western hegemonic power. During this decade, leading national newspapers in England, France, Germany, and the US view education policy as a promising means to improve domestic economic prosperity and to increase the international competitiveness of the nation in terms of industry, commerce, and power. Furthermore, educational governance, organization, and administration are debated as appropriate means of appeasing conflicts and clashes.

At the same time, particular national issues of education policy characterize the education front-page coverage of the Frankfurter Zeitung, The Times, the New York Times, and Le Figaro. The Frankfurter Zeitung’s¹ coverage of education policy focuses on disputes about the constitutional and legal order of education, and on the positive influence of education on industry, wealth, culture, civilization, and everyday life. The Times’ coverage of education policy is mainly directed towards improving the endangered British Empire’s economic competitiveness and power. Special attention goes to the colonies. The New York Times directs major attention to inequality, particularly racial segregation in schools and colleges. A second major focus of the New York Times’ front-page articles is private funds and bequests allotted in favour of improving the conditions of education in terms of buildings, facilities, grants, and scholarships in the race for excellence. In Le Figaro, the question of religious influence on education policy is embedded within a context of defending cultural pluralism against the monopolist structure of the French state. Le Figaro takes great pride in the splendid representation of the glorious French civilization abroad.

Welfare states: Education as a cure-all

In the second half of the twentieth century, the coverage of education on front pages waned. In particular, the coverage of international education policy is small and erratic. The press’s interest in education shifted from national development and progress towards welfare and equality issues.

Key topics of the Frankfurter Zeitung include sharp controversy over the tracking system; educational consequences of migration; the integration of classes, ethnic, and religious groups; the quality of teaching; the competences achieved by graduates; over- and undersupply of graduates; budgets and financial shortages; and educational returns. In The Times, most articles deal with cuts or budget shortages, the miserable state of buildings and facility deterioration; or they deal with strikes, low salaries, and living standards of teachers. Furthermore, it is argued that individual human development and the prosperity of the nation are endangered by the poor quality and low competence of graduates, and by the undersupply of technical skills that the industry is demanding. The vast majority of New York Times’ articles deal with racial segregation and desegregation in schools and higher education. Articles report on political equality programmes, social movements, racial clashes, black-run (charter) schools and colleges, the widespread poverty of students and their families, the finances of public schools and colleges, and the strained relationships between cities, states, and the federal government. In Le Figaro, radical ideological clashes among conservatives, socialists, and communists, but also clashes between religious denominations and the secular state over the abolishment of private schools, as well as strikes, unrest, and upheavals of school and university students are perpetually reported. Other topics enduringly present are financial shortages, budget cuts, and the public discontent with buildings, facilities, funds, and stipends.

In the course of time, education policy became an important promise of the great Western story and myth of feasible progress, which was disseminated on the global level by the outreach of Western nations and empires, even though the promises were never perfectly accomplished. However, in present times of non-Western globalization, education policy turns from an important tool of formerly victorious nations and their leading classes to a domestic policy element of welfare states to crystallize polymorphous power and interests. Under these conditions, it is not surprising to observe in leading newspap...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Series Editors’ Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Introduction
• Part I: The Political Economy of the Education State
• Part II: The Rise of the Education State in History
• Part III: Limits of Public Interest in Education Policy
• Part IV: From Western to Non-Western Globalization
• Notes
• References
• Index