The educating state: Historical developments and current trends.

In: Transformation of education policy., S. 53-73

Abstract

This chapter will examine early world views of education policy which argued for and against stimulating economic prosperity and social cohesion by means of - what the author calls - the educating state. The chapter then will outline the institutional formation of the educating state in the history of nation-building since the eighteenth century. The thesis contends that the political economy of the educating state does indeed explain the value of the utilization of education for improving power, wealth, and integration of competing nations as universally driving forces in history. Finally, a study of front-page coverage of education policy in leading American, UK and German newspapers shows how interacting forces of national path-dependencies and universal forces are represented in the public discourse in the second half of the twentieth century. (DIPF/Orig.).