Democracy, Education, and Equality Graz-Schumpeter Lectures [Hardcover]

This study, first published in 2006, investigates whether democracy through education may be used to generate equality among citizens.This study asks whether democracy, modeled as competition between political parties that represent different interests in the polity, will result in educational funding policies that will, at least eventually, produce citizens who have equal capacities (human capital), thus breaking the link between family background and child prospects. In other words, will democracy engender, through the educational finance policies it produces, a state of equal opportunity in the long run? Several models of the problem are studied, which vary according to the educational technology posited, i.e. the relationship between family inputs, school inputs, and the eventual human capital of the adult the child becomes.This study asks whether democracy, modeled as competition between political parties that represent different interests in the polity, will result in educational funding policies that will, at least eventually, produce citizens who have equal capacities (human capital), thus breaking the link between family background and child prospects. In other words, will democracy engender, through the educational finance policies it produces, a state of equal opportunity in the long run? Several models of the problem are studied, which vary according to the educational technology posited, i.e. the relationship between family inputs, school inputs, and the eventual human capital of the adult the child becomes.Many believe that equality of opportunity will be achieved when the prospects of children no longer depend upon the wealth and education of their parents. Many also believe that democracy is the political institution that will bring about justice. This study asks whether democracy, modeled as competition between political parties that represent different interests in the polity, will result in educational funding policies that will, at least eventl#·