Political Cultures in Parliamentary Systems

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Political Cultures in Parliamentary Systems

• Mats Ekholm
• Karen Seashore Louis
• Boudewijn van Velzen

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Our Question...

• Does a countrys political culture explain how
  parliaments and elected officials have responded
  to calls for reform?

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Methods

• Comparative case study of three
  countriesEngland, the Netherlands and Sweden
• Semi-structured interviews with 6-8 actors in the
  policy system
• A focus the involvement and collaboration of key
  educational stakeholders

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What Are The Issues?

• Policy making initiatives shift, over time,
  between central governments and intermediate or
  local agencies.
• The patchwork of local, municipal, and school
  board preferences are being challenged by
  national and international standards...

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What is a Political Culture?

• The traditional definition of political culture
  refers to enduring political attitudes and
  behaviors associated with groups that live in a
  defined geographical context (Elazar, 1970
  Lieske, 1993).
• Culture affects political transformation by
  determining the context in which social actors
  make collective and individual political
  decisions (Berezin, 1997).
• Political culture persists over time and affects
  how states address new issues (like educational
  accountability), as well as old issues (such as
  funding).

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3 Basic Political Cultures

• Traditional Policy is made by elites, with an
  emphasis on continuity and control limited
  inter-party competition
• Individualistic Political arena is a
  marketplace policy determined by public demands
  high competition
• Moralistic Emphasis on the broadest good for
  the public the common citizen is viewed as the
  primary actor

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Political Culture Dimensions

• Openness broad availability of political
  participation
• Decentralism distributed power sources no one
  center
• Rationalism policies based on logical/rational
  comprehensive solutions to problems
• Egalitarianism policies redistribute resources
  to minimize disparities in finances and/or
  achievement
• Efficiency economic cost-benefits and emphasis
  on returns for public investment optimization of
  policy performance
• Quality focus on excellence and improvement as
  the major goal of educational policy
• Choice range of options available opportunity
  to make policy decisions at multiple levels.

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State Policy Levers/Instruments

• Mandates laws, regulations, requirements,
  including sanctions
• System Change restructuring, changing governance
  or legal/financial relationships, including
  choice options
• Capacity professional development, providing
  information and/or data
• Inducements grants programs, financial aid for
  special populations (McDonnell and Elmore, 1987)

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TABLE 1 THREE POLITICAL CULTURES
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TABLE 2 STATE POLICY LEVERS
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ENGLAND A Traditional Political Culture

• Key policy events
• 1944 established separate secondary sector with
  differentiated streams and expanded the power of
  the Ministry
• 1988 (Thatcher) further centralization of
  authority in the Ministry national curriculum
  and testing increased school choice
• 1992 Establish OFSTED (non-ministerial
  inspection)
• 1998 (Blair) Omnibus bill included provisions
  for attainment targets, key stages, and national
  literacy strategy
• 2004 Joined up services for children, developed
  and delivered by local government

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Continuity over 65 Years

• Critical 1944 act passed under Tories Labour
  victory the next years involved no major changes.
• I think that one of the best things Blair did
  was to design his education reform to build on
  the important Conservative reforms Michael
  Barber (http///www.educationsector.org/analysis/)
  

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ENGLAND The Actors

• Who is involved in shaping policy?
• Relatively few people are involved in shaping the
  key features of each key policy
• Key actors are increasingly non-elected policy
  advisors (Ministerial turnover)
• Limited role of civil service, unions, public
• How much influence do they have?
• With increasing centralization and devolution of
  responsibilities outside the Ministrys civil
  service, wonks carry enormous influence
• To be honest, I think that most key policies are
  seriously influenced by about 20 people
  (anonymous respondent).

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ENGLANDState-School Relationships

• What is the relationship between schools,
  municipalities/districts and the national
  government?
• Major shift in 1944 that increased in 1988 with
  diminished role for LEAs and increased importance
  of school governing bodies
• Joined up services requires collaboration among
  local agencies but does not challenge role of
  central government in setting policy

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The NetherlandsAn Individualistic Political
Culture

• Key Policy Events
• 1917 Constitutional reform establishes freedom
  of education
• 1975 Middle School and MAVO projects reform
  of middle schools
• 1981 Basic education reform (merger of
  kindergarten and primary, fully implemented 1985
• 1986 Establishment of support system
• 1993 Basisvorming (bridge years between
  primary and lower secondary school)
• 1993 Lump sum budgeting (very gradual
  implementation)
• 1997 Tweede fase (reform of upper secondary)
• Late 1990s Privatization of the support system
• 2005 Government funds school board associations
  (MBO/VVO Raads) hoping for simplified
  consultation structure
• 2008 Parliamentary report on the failures of
  Parliamentary reform initiatives (DIjsselbloem
  Report)

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Incrementalism over 65 Years

• Critical 1917 freedom of education act passed
  with support from most parties No significant
  challenges over the last century.
• Parliamentary actions, since Minister van
  Kemenade (mid 1970s) chipped away at absolute
  school (board) autonomy
• Cross-party emphasis on balancing privatization
  and central direction have conflicted

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The Netherlands The Actors

• Who is involved in shaping policy?
• A large number of groups are involved in shaping
  the key features of each policy (permanent
  consultation overleg)
• Key actors are often non-elected corporate groups
  (unions, student associations, school boards
  association, textbook publishers, etc.)
• Limited role of civil service
• How much influence do they have?
• Many groups have potential influence and become
  involved when the issue seems relevant to their
  power and interests
• When I work to create consensus around a new
  policy, there may be 500 people I need to consult
  with (anonymous respondent).

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The NetherlandsState-School Relationships

• What is the relationship between schools,
  municipalities/districts and the national
  government?
• Major shift in 1917 that increased after 1993
  with stronger role for School Boards (70
  private).
• Private School Boards have amalgamated more
  powerful and larger
• Privatization of support services diminishes the
  governments ability to influence and steer
  semi-autonomous local schools
• Increased influence over testing creates some
  curriculum coherence
• Municipalities have a limited and conditions
  orientated responsibility.

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SWEDEN A Moralistic Culture

• Key policy events
• 1950s The government invites Kommuns to
  experiment with different solutions on a
  comprehensive school system
• 1962 The Grund school (age 7-16) is established
  followed by a Gymnasie school for all (age 17-19)
• 1991 Kommuns fully responsible for both grund
  and gymnasie schools
• 1998 The preschool system under the Ministry of
  Education
• 2008 Third redesign of the National Agency for
  Education that was established in 1991

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SWEDEN The Actors

• Who is involved in shaping policy?
• Ministers, active politicians in parliament,
  teacher and school leader union people, civil
  service people
• Political parties have a strong position
• How much influence do they have?
• The decentralization that has taken place has
  created 290 political arenas instead of one.
  National politicians have got less influence, but
  when they make a change of the system it is
  effective (for instance the changed marking
  system in the grund school)

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SWEDENState-School Relationships

• What is the relationship between schools, kommuns
  and the national government?
• From mid 1800 until 1980s the educational system
  was highly centralized. The state regulated most
  things very close.
• From 1991the 290 kommuns are responsible for all
  educational questions within the grund school and
  gymnasie school system. But they have to follow
  the same central Läroplan, use the same marking
  scale and use national tests.
• Free standing schools have become a common
  phenomena. In 1980 less than 1 of a year group
  went to this kind of school. In 2007 8 of the
  students in grund schools and 14 of the students
  in gymnasie schools went to free standing
  schools.

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TABLE 1 THREE POLITICAL CULTURES
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TABLE 2 STATE POLICY LEVERS
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Discussion

• Different countries are still variable in their
  attention to accountability and the specific
  policies that they enact.
• The variability is better explained by continuity
  with previous patterns of government actions than
  by recent initiatives
• Over the years the policies of different
  countries have a strong tendency to become more
  alike than different the role of co-operation
  within international organs like the EU and the
  OECD.