A social democratic response to market-led education policies: Concession or rejection?

Abstract

This chapter analyses market-led policy on education in Scandinavia over the last 30 years. Even though Denmark, Norway and Sweden still maintain a comprehensive school system, they have, nevertheless, initiated market-oriented reforms in the belief that explicit measures, e.g. decentralisation, state-private partnership in education provision and school choice, would enhance the quality and efficiency of education. The almost uniform view among educationalists is that market-led policy of education is a result of the increasing power of the Right. However, we posit that this view fails to provide an explanation for the significant differences to the extent these policies have been pursued across the Scandinavian states. Based on the power resource theory, we argue that social democratic consent is critical to understand this variance. Finally, we offer a brief discussion as to whether one of the tenets of Social Democratic education policy, a ‘school for all’, is being undermined, and whether the Social Democrats can be held responsible for this.