ABSTRACT
Schooling, certainly in the particular form it takes in state systems, is a relatively recent invention. The emergence of national systems of schooling has been the subject of a number of recent studies (Ramirez and Boli 1987: 2–17). In this work, as we shall see later, a number of common features can be discerned, as mass schooling systems were developed in the nation states of Western Europe (Boli 1989).
