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Despite the Odds : The Contentious Politics of Education Reform / Merilee S. Grindle.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2018]Copyright date: ©2004Description: 1 online resourceContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780691186818
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 379.8 23
LOC classification:
  • LC92.A2
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- List of Tables and Figures -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- A Note on Terminology -- CHAPTER ONE. A Conundrum: Reform Despite the Odds -- CHAPTER TWO. From Public Problems to Political Agendas -- CHAPTER THREE. Sponsoring Reform: Executive Leadership, Formidable Constraints -- CHAPTER FOUR. Designing Reforms: Problems, Solutions, and Politics -- CHAPTER FIVE. Contesting Education: Teachers' Unions and the State -- CHAPTER SIX. Contesting Education: Teachers' Unions versus Reformers -- CHAPTER SEVEN. Implementing and Sustaining Change: New Arenas for Conflict -- CHAPTER EIGHT. I n Process: The Politics of Education Reform -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary: Despite the Odds poses an important question: How can we account for successful policy reform initiatives when the political cards are stacked against change? Theories of politics usually predict that reform initiatives will be unsuccessful when powerful groups are opposed to change and institutions are biased against it. This book, however, shows how the strategic choices of reform proponents alter the destinies of policy reforms by reshaping power equations and undermining institutional biases that impede change. In many countries, the political path to reform can be daunting. Antireform interests are powerful and support for change is, at best, lukewarm. Centrally important institutions strongly defend the policy status quo. Despite these political odds, reformers have seized the initiative in promoting reform, weakening and marginalizing opposition groups, and marshaling political patrons and networks to advance their initiatives. Despite the Odds opens the "black box" of decision making in five initiatives designed to enhance the quality of education services in Latin America. The book addresses the strategies used by reformers to manage the political process of change and those adopted by opposition groups and institutions resisting their efforts. Individual chapters consider how leaders set national policy agendas for education, how policy design teams created the content of reform initiatives, how they dealt with the messy and public confrontations that greeted reform proposals when they were announced, and the carryover of political conflict when they were implemented.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780691186818

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- List of Tables and Figures -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- A Note on Terminology -- CHAPTER ONE. A Conundrum: Reform Despite the Odds -- CHAPTER TWO. From Public Problems to Political Agendas -- CHAPTER THREE. Sponsoring Reform: Executive Leadership, Formidable Constraints -- CHAPTER FOUR. Designing Reforms: Problems, Solutions, and Politics -- CHAPTER FIVE. Contesting Education: Teachers' Unions and the State -- CHAPTER SIX. Contesting Education: Teachers' Unions versus Reformers -- CHAPTER SEVEN. Implementing and Sustaining Change: New Arenas for Conflict -- CHAPTER EIGHT. I n Process: The Politics of Education Reform -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Despite the Odds poses an important question: How can we account for successful policy reform initiatives when the political cards are stacked against change? Theories of politics usually predict that reform initiatives will be unsuccessful when powerful groups are opposed to change and institutions are biased against it. This book, however, shows how the strategic choices of reform proponents alter the destinies of policy reforms by reshaping power equations and undermining institutional biases that impede change. In many countries, the political path to reform can be daunting. Antireform interests are powerful and support for change is, at best, lukewarm. Centrally important institutions strongly defend the policy status quo. Despite these political odds, reformers have seized the initiative in promoting reform, weakening and marginalizing opposition groups, and marshaling political patrons and networks to advance their initiatives. Despite the Odds opens the "black box" of decision making in five initiatives designed to enhance the quality of education services in Latin America. The book addresses the strategies used by reformers to manage the political process of change and those adopted by opposition groups and institutions resisting their efforts. Individual chapters consider how leaders set national policy agendas for education, how policy design teams created the content of reform initiatives, how they dealt with the messy and public confrontations that greeted reform proposals when they were announced, and the carryover of political conflict when they were implemented.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)