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7 - England

from Part II - Qualitative Evidence: The Role of Public Opinion in Education Reforms in Western Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2020

Marius R. Busemeyer
Affiliation:
Universität Konstanz, Germany
Julian L. Garritzmann
Affiliation:
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt Am Main
Erik Neimanns
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Cologne
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Summary

This chapter studies the role of public opinion in the politics of education reforms in England from 2010 until early 2018. We find the influence of public opinion to vary depending on the salience and coherence of public opinion. When issues were highly salient and public opinion was coherent (loud politics), the government appealed to public opinion. It expanded free access to childcare and partly corrected its original attempts to cut public spending on schools and increase tuition fees for higher education. With high salience on the issue but conflicting preferences across partisan constituencies (loud but noisy politics), the government pushed through its reform agenda, which targeted the preferences of its core constituencies. It was able to continue to do this provided it possessed sufficient strength in parliament (in the case of its attempt to expand selective grammar schools) and as long as public opinion remained sufficiently split between supporters and opponents of the government (in the case of tuition fees). When salience was low, quiet politics predominated. Several reform issues related to the governance of the education system failed to capture much public attention, which gave interest groups an opportunity to insert their preferences into the decision-making process.

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A Loud but Noisy Signal?
Public Opinion and Education Reform in Western Europe
, pp. 240 - 274
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • England
  • Marius R. Busemeyer, Universität Konstanz, Germany, Julian L. Garritzmann, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt Am Main, Erik Neimanns, Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Cologne
  • Book: A Loud but Noisy Signal?
  • Online publication: 14 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108777896.007
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  • England
  • Marius R. Busemeyer, Universität Konstanz, Germany, Julian L. Garritzmann, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt Am Main, Erik Neimanns, Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Cologne
  • Book: A Loud but Noisy Signal?
  • Online publication: 14 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108777896.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • England
  • Marius R. Busemeyer, Universität Konstanz, Germany, Julian L. Garritzmann, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt Am Main, Erik Neimanns, Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Cologne
  • Book: A Loud but Noisy Signal?
  • Online publication: 14 September 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108777896.007
Available formats
×