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Abstract
The present article explores the making of education policies in weak states, particularly in the context of developing nations and in view of the increasing influence of international organisations, such as the World Bank, in definition of education reform agendas. The discussion seeks to contribute to the theory of weak states by highlighting the importance of political processes of interest articulation and mobilisation, and by suggesting that state weakness can vary internally from one policy to another. It does so with reference to education and to a study of radical discontinuity in Peruvian education policies.
Notes
1. Awareness about the crisis of the national education system goes beyond the usual strategies that accompany the neo‐liberal education gospel and whose point of departure tends to be the highlighting of problems as to suggest the existence of crises which therefore justify the introduction of reforms. In the Peruvian case, the deficits of the national education system are evident not only through results of national and international assessments, but also in the very precarious material conditions in which many schools operate in view of the lack of resources (in terms of teachers salaries, availability of funds for the maintenance of infrastructure, lack of school materials, teacher training, etc.), all of which negatively impinge on the circulation of knowledge (Arregui Citation2000; Cueto et al. Citation2003; PREAL and GRADE Citation2003; Hunt Citation2004; Balarin et al. Citation2006; Benavides et al. Citation2006; PREAL and GRADE Citation2006).
2. This generates severe inequalities within the national education system: families who can invest in their children's education will either send them to private schools or contribute considerable resources to public schools, while children from families in the poorest areas are left to attend schools with scant resources.
3. On the notion of educational policy settlements see: Education Group ‐ Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies Citation1981.
4. An illustration of how fragmented political interests are can be found in the large number of political groups (more than 20) that participated in the last presidential election in 2006. Among this, most groups were new independent political movements, often exclusively formed for electoral purposes.