Construction of the First Mass Education Systems in Nineteenth-Century Europe

Abstract

This article analyzes two aspects of the construction of the first mass education systems in Europe and the United States in the nineteenth century: the timing of national laws mandating compulsory education and organizational expansion in enrollments. The interaction among the state, the church, and societal groups was a critical determinant of the form these systems took. Where the state was formally allied to a national church, it was able to create a national educational system early. In the absence of such a state-church linkage, outcomes depended on the roles of societal groups. Where such groups were actively involved in schooling, enrollments expanded early but the state found it difficult to construct a single national system. Where societal groups did not mobilize around education, compulsory schooling laws were enacted early, but because of the state's organizational weakness, these laws were not realized in the growth in enrollments. Over the course of the nineteenth century, mass education systems were constructed throughout Europe. State-controlled compulsory schooling replaced or incorporated and expanded on what had been provided privately or by religious authorities. In the twentieth century, state educational systems have become indispensable components of modem nation-states and widely institutionalized throughout the world (Boli and Ramirez 1984). The nineteenth-century construction of educational systems in Europe is particularly worthy of study because it occurred when the idea of mass education was not yet taken for granted. This article examines the conditions that facilitated the creation of these first national education systems. Although the literature detailing the rise of mass education within national societies is rich, this article seeks to add to the growing body of comparative research on variations among societies (Archer 1982; Boli and Ramirez 1984; Boli, Ramirez, and Meyer 1985; Craig and Spear 1978; Muller, Ringer, and Simon 1988). We perform a longitudinal regression and eventhistory analysis of educational expansion in 17 Westem countries. Our results suggest three paths to mass education, each produced by a characteristic pattem of educational activity involving linkages among the central state, societal groups, and the church.