Despite the Odds

by Grindle, Merilee S.

• ISBN13: 9780691118000
• ISBN10: 0691118000
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-07-06
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Despite the Oddsposes an important question: How can we account for successful policy reform initiatives when the political cards are stacked against change? Theories of politics usually predict that reform initiatives will be unsuccessful when powerful groups are opposed to change and institutions are biased against it. This book, however, shows how the strategic choices of reform proponents alter the destinies of policy reforms by reshaping power equations and undermining institutional biases that impede change. In many countries, the political path to reform can be daunting. Antireform interests are powerful and support for change is, at best, lukewarm. Centrally important institutions strongly defend the policy status quo. Despite these political odds, reformers have seized the initiative in promoting reform, weakening and marginalizing opposition groups, and marshaling political patrons and networks to advance their initiatives. Despite the Oddsopens the "black box" of decision making in five initiatives designed to enhance the quality of education services in Latin America. The book addresses the strategies used by reformers to manage the political process of change and those adopted by opposition groups and institutions resisting their efforts. Individual chapters consider how leaders set national policy agendas for education, how policy design teams created the content of reform initiatives, how they dealt with the messy and public confrontations that greeted reform proposals when they were announced, and the carryover of political conflict when they were implemented.

Author Biography

Merilee Grindle is Edward S. Mason Professor of International Development at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
Abbreviations	xiii
A Note on Terminology	xvii
A Conundrum: Reform Despite the Odds	1	(26)
From Public Problems to Political Agendas	27	(31)
Sponsoring Reform: Executive Leadership, Formidable Constraints	58	(35)
Designing Reforms: Problems, Solutions, and Politics	93	(26)
Contesting Education: Teachers' Unions and the State	119	(21)
Contesting Education: Teachers' Unions versus Reformers	140	(25)
Implementing and Sustaining Change: New Arenas for Conflict	165	(24)
In Process: The Politics of Education Reform	189	(18)
Notes	207	(26)
Bibliography	233	(16)
Index	249