Neocorporatism and the politics of French education

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Abstract
In a country where neocorporatist patterns are not well developed in the labour sector, the major French teachers' union, the Fédération de l'Education Nationale (FEN), enjoys unusual advantages of mass membership, extensive delegated administrative powers and established access to a sympathetic government. And yet French education under socialist leadership has been marked by intense conflict. The experience of the FEN illustrates some of the conditions of neocorporatism. Hampered by its internal divisions over interests and ideology, by external competition from private schools and rival groups at the secondary and university levels, and by its own fears of co‐optation, the FEN has been more effective at retarding than at shaping educational reform.