Institutions, Socio-political Environments, and Educational Change: Lessons from Decentralization of Educational Services in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A Comparative Analysis Between Two Municipalities

Open Access
- Author:
- Astiz, María Fernanda
- Graduate Program:
- Educational Theory and Policy
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- July 29, 2002
- Committee Members:
- David P Baker, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Gerald K Letendre, Committee Member
David Alexander Gamson, Committee Member
David Myers, Committee Member - Keywords:
- education policy
decentralization
socio-political environments
civic capacity
Argentina
Buenos Aires - Abstract:
- During the last decades, policies of educational decentralization have been globally embraced as a strategy to solve not only problems of governance and finance but also to strengthen educational democratization by bringing decision making closer to the citizenry. Following this worldwide trend, during the early 1990s the Argentine central administration delegated to the provincial administrations some responsibilities of secondary and tertiary schooling. Using an integrative approach and methodology, this study traces different sources of explanation—institutional frameworks, socio-political environmental conditions, and civic capacity characteristics—along the different phases of the 1990s Argentine decentralization policy process while looking comparatively at its outcomes in two school districts of the Province of Buenos Aires. The results underscores three important points: 1) how Argentina’s institutional framework conditioned the policy adoption by centralizing the decision-making and control over the process of education reform at the national level while delegating the responsibilities for policy implementation to the provincial administration; 2) how the province of Buenos Aires adopted and adapted certain aspects of the decentralization policy through informal institutional funding networks of neo-populist style, vesting the education reform to the political aspirations of the governor and, 3) how the distinct socio-political environment of each school district produced differential policy outcomes towards three policies of the decentralization reform: school autonomy, community participation in education, and the role of the local educational administration. These differences surfaced through the inefficiencies of the provincial administration to respond to new educational responsibilities. Evidence from the two school districts included in the study—La Matanza and Vicente López—that differ in size, political culture, and socio-economic level illustrates varied resources for adjusting provincial mandates to the socio-political circumstances. La Matanza’s chaotic environment, inefficient managerial capacities, and its economic and political subordination to the provincial administration, have been the origins of an almost inactive school-community relationship except for the activity promoted by the decentralized and informal provincial social welfare network that used the school as the center of political clientelism. The school-community relationship’s apathy was also evident among the school, local school board and the local administration interaction. On the other hand, Vicente López’s charismatic leadership, accountable and efficient managerial capacity—based primarily on an informal institutional funding channel established between the local administration and a local business association—and its political rivalry with the provincial administration have allowed this district to maintain certain autonomy from the latter and to have an active role at the school level. This municipality has also proved to be pro-active in establishing participatory channels between the school, the local school board, and local civil associations. The particular state-society relationship established in each district proves that socio-political environments and civic involvement characteristics have an important effect in determining the type of community involvement developed. However, the effect dilutes at the school level where the formal structure of the provincial educational system is still an important determinant of in-school participatory outcomes. As a whole the study demonstrates that when global trends are carried out at the national level, they are not only conditioned by national institutional frameworks but also by local socio-political environments in which they operate proving that, in some cases, neither civic involvement nor decentralization equal democratization at the local and school level.