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Education and the State: A Study in Political Economy (Third Edition, Revised and Expanded) (Book/ Paperback)

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Education and the State first appeared in 1965 and was immediately hailed as one of the century's most important works on education. In the thirty years that have followed, the questions this book raised concerning state-run education have grown immeasurably in urgency and intensity. Education and the State re-examines the role of government in education and challenges the fundamental statist assumption that the state is best able to provide an education for the general population.

West explores the views on education of the nineteenth-century British reformers and classical economists who argued the necessity of state education. He demonstrates that by the Foster Act of 1870 the state system of education was superimposed upon successful private efforts, thereby suppressing an emerging and increasingly robust structure of private, voluntary, and competitive education funded by families, churches, and philanthropies.

This new and expanded edition of Education and the State addresses the American situation in education, applying the lessons learned from the study of British institutions. It also broadens their application from education to the conduct of democracy as a political system.

Edwin G. West is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Carleton University, Ottawa.


Table of Contents
Foreword xiii
Introduction xvii
Preface xxiii
Acknowledgements xxix

Part one
Protection of Infants Principle
Chapter 1. State Protection of Minors in Theory 3
Chapter 2. State Protection of Minors in Practice: The English Education Act of 1944 14

Part two
The Political Economists’ Argument of the ‘Neighbourhood Effects’ of Education
Chapter 3. The ‘Neighbourhood Effects’ Argument 31
Chapter 4. Education to Make Democracy Work 45
Chapter 5. Equality of Opportunity 58
Chapter 6. Education and the Quest for ‘Common Values’ 84
Chapter 7. Education and Economic Growth 107

Part three
Theoretical and Empirical Antecedents
Chapter 8. The Classical Economists on Education 137
Chapter 9. Literacy—Before and after 1870 157
Chapter 10. The Rise and Fall of Nineteenth-Century Private Schools for the Masses 170
Chapter 11. The Quality of Schooling before and after 1870 199
Chapter 12. Twentieth-Century Legislative Changes and the Struggle for Control 215

Part four
New Patterns in State Responsibility
Chapter 13. An Educational Model in Political Economy 247
Chapter 14. Are Twentieth-Century Parents Competent to Choose? 259
Chapter 15. ‘Neighbourhood Effects’ in Perspective 279
Chapter 16. Conclusion to the Second Edition 286

Part five
A Further Case Study of Public Intervention
Chapter 17. The Political Economy of American Public School Legislation 295

Select Bibliography 339
Recommended Reading 345
Other Publications by E. G. West 347

Index 353

About the Author(s)