Abstract

VERGER, Antoni; ZANCAJO, Adrián  and  FONTDEVILA, Clara. Political Economy of Educational Privatization: Policies, Trends and Paths from a Comparative Perspective. Rev. colomb. educ. [online]. 2016, n.70, pp.47-78. ISSN 0120-3916.

Over the last two decades, education privatization has taken on a global dimension. Countries with very different political and economical circumstances have come to adopt a variety of pro-private sector policies in education. The purpose of this article is to explore why and how such policies are being disseminated worldwide. From a political economy perspective, the article elaborates on the conditions, agents and mechanisms behind the advance of privatization in a variety of educational settings. Methodologically, the article is based on the systematic review of 164 primary studies focusing on education privatization reforms. The application of this methodology has allowed us to identify six paths towards education privatization. They are: privatization as a result of the structural transformation of the state (epitomized by the cases of Chile and the UK); privatization as an incremental reform (with the US as the most emblematic case); the "Nordic way" toward privatization (in social-democratic welfare-states from the north of Europe); historical public-private partnerships (in countries with an important tradition of religious schools, such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain); de facto privatization in low-income countries; and privatization "via disaster" in countries affected by conflicts and catastrophes.

Keywords : Educational privatization; educational policy; political economy; systematic literature review; global education agenda; vouchers; charter schools; low-fee private schools; endo-privatization.

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