The development of the modern nation-state was an inherently centralising process. Education policy and the institutionalisation of mass public schooling played a key role in this process, facilitating industrialisation and the generation of mass loyalty toward the state. In almost all federal systems, however, education policy remained an…

Because primary education is often conceptualized as a pro-poor redistributive policy, a common argument is that democratization increases its provision. But primary education can also serve the goals of autocrats, including redistribution, promoting loyalty, nation-building, and/or industrialization. To examine the relationship between…

Politicization is seen as dysfunctional to the academic goals of Indian universities. Eliminating political control of higher education, however, poses a challenge to the Indian political system. Suggestions for doing so are offered. (LBH)

Through a review of literature on the subject, this paper discusses the dangers of political influence on the demand for educational accountability in Australian schools. Some areas of universities and colleges should remain free from vertical or political accountability, the paper warns. These areas include the values of liberalism and free…

Higher education in India has returned to normal after cessation of the declared Emergency by Indira Gandhi, with increased student and faculty militancy as well as the emergence of strong pressures for increased governmental control over the university. (LBH)

A report from the Committee R on Government Relations of the American Association of University Professors is presented. The Department of Education, federal budgets, reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, intelligence legislation, truth-in-testing legislation, amending the National Labor Relations Act, and the presidential election of 1980…

This paper contends that former Eastern bloc countries, which have rejected centralized, authoritarian political systems, are emulating a United Kingdom school development model which itself is authoritarian, centralized, and coercive. The paper characterizes that authoritarianism and suggests an alternative educational model of centralized…

The relationships between government and the universities are explored with examples given of government infringement upon university autonomy and abridgement of commitments. The reasons for the absence of public protest are analyzed. A conclusion is that a university's relations with government reflect the current realities of power and…

British government policies affecting education are in four categories: deliberate party policies for education; as part of a tradition of consensual policymaking; forced on government by external constraints; and deriving from other areas such as public expenditure or central-local government relations. Few are found in the first category. (MSE)

In Sweden recent education policy has been aimed at the reform of higher education. This study is concerned with the political decisionmaking process in which a variety of public demands were articulated and reconciled in legislation for reform. It has three purposes: (1) analysis of this decisionmaking process; (2) reconstruction of the higher…

A discussion of issues and considerations in planning for the opening of distance education institutions in developing and developed nations draws on the experience of recently established institutions and looks at government involvement, the political process, and the role, composition, schedule, and reports of planning committees. (MSE)

Four separate but overlapping power centers in French universities are described and discussed: the state authority (minister), faculty, political and trade unions, and students. Confrontations between these powers have characterized French higher education in the last 15 years, and they have been at the root of the concept of autonomy. (MSE)

Discusses: (1) the development of federal activism in education from 1964-72; (2) influences on activism during various administrations; (3) transformation of the federal role during the Reagan administration; and (4) determinants of the federal role in education (the president; political and economic conditions; racial, religious, and Federal…

Policies in Chinese education, especially higher education, have undergone major shifts since 1949 in response to general swings in Chinese policy, ideological debates, and leaders. The shifts have been between education as a party device to sustain revolutionary values and education as a government instrument to promote modernization. (MSE)

The history of higher education's relations with government is one of cooperation succeeded by skepticism. Institutions entering the government relations arena need concrete goals and professionally organized programs. An umbrella political action committee should be the new political arm of higher education. (Author/MLW)