The Political Economy of Higher Education Finance

"This book is a major contribution to our understanding of the politics of higher education. Combining quantitative and case-oriented evidence from a broad range of countries, Garritzmann demonstrates how partisan politics has shaped different aspects of educational spending and led to distinct paths toward the knowledge economy. It speaks to students of education and inequality across disciplines." (Torben Iversen, Professor of Political Economy, Harvard University, USA) "This book represents an impressive contribution to an important body of recent literature focusing on education policy. It provides a systematic account of the politics behind tuition fees and education subsidies in OECD countries since 1945. It should be required reading to anyone interested in the political economy of industrialized democracies." (David Rueda, Professor of Comparative Politics, Oxford University, UK) "In this impressive book, Julian Garritzmann analyzes the variety of student financing regimes in OECD democracies, showing that political conflicts about tuition fees and subsidies are at the core of these regimes, contributing to complex dynamics in the political economy of higher education. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods, Garritzmann disentangles these complexities and develops a compelling argument about the role of partisan politics in explaining the origins of student financing regimes. This book is an extremely important contribution to the growing political economy of education literature. It is a must-read for anybody interested in the future of HE finance." (Marius Busemeyer, Professor of Political Science, University of Konstanz, Germany)

This book analyzes the political economy of higher education finance across a range of OECD countries, exploring why some students pay extortionate tuition fees whilst for others their education is free.This book analyzes the political economy of higher education finance across a range of OECD countries, exploring why some students pay extortionate tuition fees whilst for others their education is free. What are the redistributional consequences of these different tuition-subsidy systems? Analysing the variety of existing systems, Garritzmann shows that across the advanced democracies “Four Worlds of Student Finance” exist. Historically, however, all countries’ higher education systems looked very much alike in the 1940s. The book develops a theoretical model, the Time-Sensitive Partisan Theory, to explain why countries have evolved from a similar historical starting point to today’s very distinct Four Worlds. The empirical analyses combine a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative evidence, studying higher education policies in all advanced democracies from 1945-2015.