8 - The Argument in Comparative Perspective

Summary

Chapter 8 extends the book's argument to cases beyond northern India. It considers how bureaucratic norms shapes the delivery of primary education in four cases--the southern Indian state of Kerala, along with country cases of China, Finland and France, based on a close reading of secondary literature on bureaucratic development and education. The Kerala case demonstrates how deliberative bureaucracy has emerged in the historical context of social movement politics and private provision of schooling, yielding higher quality government services within India. The study of China offers insights on deliberative bureaucracy operates in a nondemocratic context, highlighting the adaptative capabilities of Chinese bureaucracy. The comparison of school education in Finland and France offers suggestive evidence for the divergent impacts of deliberative and legalistic bureaucracy across these advanced economies. Although the chapter's findings are provisional, the study of bureaucratic norms and services across a wide spectrum of sociopolitical contexts suggests the wider reach of the book's theoretical framework.