ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by defining conservatism in relation to a few concepts explored at length, most notably neoliberalism and neoconservatism. It proposes an expansion of Apple's theory of conservative modernization that takes into account the central role that subaltern actors operating on the margins of power play within this process. The chapter focuses on a more comprehensive and theoretical explication of the process through which hegemonic alliances are constructed, maintained, and contested. It suggests the grounds on which a project of progressive modernization might be advanced. Neoliberal interventions in education are essentially predicated around a reprivatizing state that devolves educational responsibility to individual schools and families as producers and consumers within an educational marketplace. The politically formative process of disarticulation and rearticulation does not, however, occur in a seamless manner directly governed by the dominant groups' political will.
