ABSTRACT
Dramatic changes have occurred in education systems in most European countries in recent decades. Education has been challenged by developments taking place in society, politics and the economy. Globalization, the forward march of neo-liberalism, the growth of the knowledge economy and the new middle classes have encouraged the growth of powerful rhetoric around the need for education to be more pluralistic and individualized; and uniform, blanket solutions have been seen as increasingly inappropriate to meet the needs of more diverse and heterogeneous societies. In many countries, this has led to a decentralization of the responsibility for education from the state to local government, schools or the market and a move from detailed regulation to framework legislation as a means of steering education. These developments have been seen as part of the process of governance whereby the state is no longer able to ‘go it alone’ and is forced to step back and allow other interests to play a role. However, in recent years the ‘hollowing out’ of the state model has been challenged and more subtle theories of governance have been developed. These suggest that what we are witnessing is not the disappearance of the state but rather its ability to adapt to changing circumstances and find new ways of governing that, whilst bringing in new actors, enable the state to remain an active part of governance. The importance accorded to education, not only in terms of creating and maintaining national identity, but also for economic development suggests that this is an area from which the state will not willingly abdicate.
