Public Opinion and the Political Economy of Education Policy around the World

Comparative analyses of the influence of public opinion on education policy in developed countries.

Although research has suggested a variety of changes to education policy that have the potential to improve educational outcomes, politicians are often reluctant to implement such evidence-based reforms. Public opinion and pressure by interest groups would seem to have a greater role in shaping education policy than insights drawn from empirical data. The construction of a comparative political economy of education that seeks to explain policy differences among nations is long overdue. This book offers the first comparative inventory and analysis of public opinion and education in developed countries, drawing on data primarily from Europe and the United States.

Ludger Woessmann is Professor of Economics at the University of Munich and Director of the Ifo Center for the Economics of Education and Innovation. Martin R. West is William Henry Bloomberg Professor of Education at Harvard University.

Series Foreword 
I Introduction
1 Toward a Comparative Political Economy of Education: Insights and Gaps 3
II Comparative Evidence 
2 Public Opinion on Education Policies: A Multicountry Perspective
3 Is Seeing Believing? How Americans and Germans Think about Their Schools
4 Public Opinion on Teacher Pay and Status: Evidence across Countries
III Country Case Studies
5 American Public Opinion and Partisan Conflict: Education's Exceptionalism?
6 Ten-Year Trends in Public Opinion on US Schools
7 Public Opinion on Education Policy in Germany
8 Selected Findings from Ten Years of Public Opinion Surveys on Education in Switzerland
Contributors 
Index