Provides a provocative examination of the interplay between political culture and educational policy. The goal is to provide a better understanding of how different countries are responding to the global exchange of policy ideas that includes 'the standards movement' and 'new public management' or accountability in the public sector.

KAREN SEASHORE LOUIS is Regents Professor and Robert H. Beck Chair of Ideas in Education at the University of Minnesota, USA.
BOUDEWIJN A.M VAN VELZEN is a Senior Consultant at APS, National Centre for School Improvement in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

PART I POLITICAL CULTURE, EDUCATION AND HISTORY AN INTRODUCTION - Karen Seashore Louis and Boudewijn van Velzen Political Culture and Educational Reform - Geert Devos, Mats Ekholm, Kaspar Kofod, Karen Seashore Louis, Lejf Moos, Michael Schratz, and Boudewijn van Velz Historical Perspectives on Educational Policy and Political Cultures - Karen Seashore Louis, Kasper Kofod, Lejf Moos, and Boudewijn van Velzen PART II INTRODUCTION Many Cooks Will Not Spoil the Broth: Educational Policy in Sweden - Mats Ekholm Denmark: Bildung in a Competitive State? - Lejf Moos and Klaus Kasper Kofod The Netherlands: The Clergyman and the Merchant Revisited - Boudewijn A.M. van Velzen Flanders (Belgium): Regulated Anarchy in Catholic and Public Education - Geert Devos Austria's Balancing Act: Walking the Tightrope Between Federalism And Centralization - Michael Schratz The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: The English Case - Karen Seashore and John MacBeath E Pluribus Unum? Dissonance in the U.S. Educational Political Culture - Karen Seashore Louis PART III THE CROSS COUNTRY STUDIES Reform in Stable systems: The Impossible Dream? - Geert Devos and Michael Schratz Political Cultures in England and the Netherlands: Similar Discourse, Different Results - Karen Seashore Louis and Boudewijn van Velzen Examining the Myth of Nordic Uniformity: The Production of Educational Policy in Denmark and Sweden - Mats Ekholm and Lejf Moos Educational Systems in North Carolina and Nebraska - Molly F. Gordon and Karen Seashore Louis PART IV REFLECTIONS 'Wer Vorwärts Kommen Will, Muss Auch Mal Rückwarts Denken' Reflections On the Case Studies - Boudewijn van Velzen, Karen Seashore Louis, Geert Devos, Mats Ekholm, Kasper Kofod, Lejf Moos, and Michael Schratz Policy Cultures and Education Policy: A Central and Eastern European Perspective - Gábor Halász The Possibilities and Challenges of Comparative Policy: Reflections on the Limits of Policy, Globalization and Prediction - Ben Levin