Remember people's education? Shifting alliances, state‐building and South Africa's narrowing policy agenda

Following the 1994 democratic elections, education policy in South Africa has moved from collective and transformational priorities, salient during the 1980s period of resistance, to a centrist and pro‐human capital position. While the democratic movement talked much about core reforms in the social relations inside classrooms, the new Government of National Unity is focusing on system‐wide rationalisation (including a unified qualifications scheme), developing management information and incrementally changing spending patterns. School quality is being addressed but with much less emphasis on democratising social relations and changing the character of classrooms than anticipated during die years of resistance. This paper describes this dramatic shift in education policy priorities, focusing on central government and two contrasting provinces. It employs two theoretical frameworks ‐‐ political economy and institutional theory ‐‐ to explain the causes and forms of this new set of policy priorities.