EUR.GROWTH: Die Erfassung der Bildungsinvestitionen im 19. und Vergleich

---

Name: Claude Diebolt
Email: claude.diebolt@lameta.univ-montp1.fr
Institution: CNRS

Co-author: none

Title: Die Erfassung der Bildungsinvestitionen im 19. und 20.
Jahrhundert. Deutschland, Frankreich, Groşbritannien und
Spanien im Vergleich

Internet Address of abstracted work: none available

By mail:
Claude Diebolt
8 Route de Montpellier
34160 RESTINCLIERES (France)

Language: German

Abstract:
The comparative analysis of expenditure on education in France,
Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain in the 19th and 20th centuries,
has led us to putting forward the hypothesis of periodic structural
change in the social system connected to that of the economic system.
Throughout the nineteenth century and then until World War 2, this
change took place mainly during the long depressed phases of the
economy (1820-1850, 1873-1896 and 1920-1945). However, there seems to
have been a fundamental change in the relation of education to the
economy after World War 2. In fact, it seems as if education had
first been an accompanying investment and then has become - at least
in most developed countries - one of the causes of economic growth,
if not the determinant factor. This means that a new mode of
regulation of the economic and social system in which the
accumulation of physical capital is still important but appears to be
becoming less so than the accumulation of human capital is now in
existence. We explain this phenomenon by putting forward the
hypothesis that in the most advanced countries education no longer
operates as an exogenous component that helps to correct imbalances
in the economic system but has become an integral part of the
economy, possibly forming one of the main driving forces of growth.
In fact, action is at two levels. It first increases the production
capacity of the economic system and is also a consumer good
corresponding to strongly growing demand related to life style
(increased leisure time and the availability of culture and leisure).

The phase of economic prosperity from 1945 to 1973 should therefore
be studied as a period of extensive development of the educational
and training system and especially secondary and higher education. As
a corollary, the current depression phase should be considered as a
period of intensive development and of a search for effectiveness
characterised by a qualitative improvement of training and the search
for new forms that are likely to increase the efficiency of the
relation between education and the economy. By instituting training
on a lifelong basis, the development of continuing training
contributes to this change by simultaneously developing the side of
education and training that is not directly productive. This being
so, the trend reversal of 1945 observed initially for the most
advanced countries does not stand out in the case of Spain. Is this a
simple conjunctural effect related to Francoism or might this point
to a possible difference in phase (or lag) between the countries in
the centre of Europe and those in the South with regard to economic
and social development? As a continuation of this and with the
prospect of a probable end to the marked slump that has affected the
world economy for nearly three decades, issues concerning the future
development of educational systems are particularly important. Are we
moving towards fresh extensive development of educational and
training systems based on the changes that have occurred since the
turning point in the early 1970s? In countries where the situation is
relatively out of phase, as in Spain, will this extension really take
place and be sustainable or will the inverse trend in education
remain? Finally, like product life cycles, is it possible that
education has reached its peak and might there now be stagnation or
decline in relation to the movement of the national product?

Bibliography: Diebolt, Claude. "Die Erfassung der Bildungsinvestitionen im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Deutschland, Frankreich, Groşbritannien und Spanien im Vergleich", in: Zeitschrift f¸r Erziehungswissenschaft, Vol. 3, No. 4, 2000, forthcoming.

Subject: G
Geographical Area: 4
Country/Region: France, Germany, United Kingdom and Spain
Time Period: 8,9