REDEFINITIONS OF THE PUBLIC /PRIVATE SECTORS RELATIONSHIPS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR DEMOCRATIZING EDUCATION

Abstract

This study deals with the concept of Third way democracy and its implications for the democratization of education. In the last decade, studies and researches analyzed this particular period of capitalism, which is now in crisis after a long expansion period in the wake of World War II. Its main strategies for overcoming this crisis – neoliberalism, globalization, productive restructuring and the Third way – redefine the role of the State, mainly with regard to social policies, with deeply felt consequences for the relationship between the public and private sectors. This study, therefore, aims to analyze the changes which have taken place in the role of the State both in terms of the change of ownership (non-state public) and what remains in state ownership but which takes on the logic of the market, reorganizing management processes (quasi market). The text is divided into two parts. First it deals with the democratic proposals of neo-liberal theory and the Third way. Then it analyzes the challenges of democratizing education in the contexts of the Third way and the Tertiary Sector.