Equality, Efficiency, and the Left: Marketizing Schools Policy in England and Sweden

Why did Sweden adopt a national system of school vouchers in a politically consensual fashion, while more muted such reforms in England have been and remain far more politically controversial?  How can this contrast be reconciled with understandings of embedded social democracy in Sweden and the pervasiveness of more market-oriented ideology in England?  I present a theory that predicts left-wing parties will favor these kinds of marketizing reforms when societal inequality is low. They do so because the reforms are perceived to hold the promise of greater `efficiency' --- in the form of improved student performance and parental satisfaction.  By contrast, in high inequality settings, left-wing parties will oppose such reforms because they are expected to exacerbate existing societal inequalities.  A paired comparison of English and Swedish schools policies for the period 1990--2013, using both policy history and elite interviews, lends considerable support for both the predictions and the theoretical mechanisms.