However important the school may be as a vehicle to institutionalize and perpetuate democracy, it has been largely ignored by contemporary scholars of democratization especially in developing and former socialist countries. This book draws on new research as well as established classics in helping to fill the gap and map out useful directions for comparative inquiry on the role of education in democratization and transitions from centralized authority.

The Editors: Noel F. McGinn is Emeritus Professor in the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and Emeritus Fellow in the Harvard Institute for International Development. Erwin H. Epstein is Professor and Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Loyola University of Chicago. Both McGinn and Epstein are past presidents of the Comparative and International Education Society.