The Permanence of Distinctiveness

This paper analyses the performance and the emerging forms of governance of schooling in the countries of the southern model of welfare state (Ferrera, 1996, 2000). Four countries—Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy—will be analysed in the context of the ‘lifelong learning policy’ and the wider Lisbon strategy. The common belonging of these countries to the Southern European model of welfare is linked to their ‘difficulty’ (and the relative ‘distance’ from the European standards) in the alignment with the policy technologies of the European Union. The paper describes the performances together with some of the differences in translating the logic of decentralisation. It then aims at discussing different lines of interpretations (macro-social, institutional, cultural) for these enduring ‘difficulties’.