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The making of a liberal education: Political economy of Austrian school reform, 1865 - 1875

Author

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  • Tomáš Cvrcek

    (UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies)

  • Miroslav Zajicek

Abstract

The rise of mass schooling is an important contributor to modern economic growth. But its form, content, scale and manner of provision are all matters of public policy that are subject to politics. The rise of modern schooling is frequently cast as a product of broadened suffrage and stronger political voice of the masses, which overcame the political opposition from old ruling elites. We investigate this hypothesis, using the case of a school reform undertaken in Imperial Austria in 1869. We show that while landowners were less likely to vote for school modernization than urban and business interests, the strongest opposition came from the rural areas where the suffrage was in fact most numerous. The reform passed in spite of their opposition but, interestingly, post-reform developments suggest that passive resistance to it continued in the countryside in spite of the alleged benefits that education was billed to bring the masses.

Suggested Citation

  • Tomáš Cvrcek & Miroslav Zajicek, 2017. "The making of a liberal education: Political economy of Austrian school reform, 1865 - 1875," UCL SSEES Economics and Business working paper series 2017-3, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES).
    • Handle: RePEc:see:wpaper:2017:3
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    File URL: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1546382/1/Working%20Paper%202017.3.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Monica Bozzano & Gabriele Cappelli, 2019. "The legacy of history or the outcome of reforms? Primary education and literacy in Liberal Italy (1871-1911)," Department of Economics University of Siena 801, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    2. Tomas Cvrcek & Miroslav Zajicek, 2019. "The rise of public schooling in nineteenth-century Imperial Austria: Who gained and who paid?," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 13(3), pages 367-403, September.

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    Keywords

    mass schooling; political economy; Austria-Hungary;
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