Despite the Odds poses an important question: How can we account for successful policy reform initiatives when the political cards are stacked against change? Theories of politics usually predict that reform initiatives will be unsuccessful when powerful groups are opposed to change and institutions are biased against it. This book, however, shows how the strategic choices of reform proponents alter the destinies of policy reforms by reshaping power equations and undermining institutional biases that impede change.In many countries, the political path to reform can be daunting. Antireform interests are powerful and support for change is, at best, lukewarm. Centrally important institutions strongly defend the policy status quo. Despite these political odds, reformers have seized the initiative in promoting reform, weakening and marginalizing opposition groups, and marshaling political patrons and networks to advance their initiatives.Despite the Odds opens the "black box" of decision making in five initiatives designed to enhance the quality of education services in Latin America. The book addresses the strategies used by reformers to manage the political process of change and those adopted by opposition groups and institutions resisting their efforts. Individual chapters consider how leaders set national policy agendas for education, how policy design teams created the content of reform initiatives, how they dealt with the messy and public confrontations that greeted reform proposals when they were announced, and the carryover of political conflict when they were implemented.

List of Tables and Figures ix Acknowledgments xi Abbreviations xiii A Note on Terminology xvii CHAPTER ONE: A Conundrum: Reform Despite the Odds 1 CHAPTER TWO: From Public Problems to Political Agendas 27 CHAPTER THREE: Sponsoring Reform: Executive Leadership, Formidable Constraints 58 CHAPTER FOUR: Designing Reforms: Problems, Solutions, and Politics 93 CHAPTER FIVE: Contesting Education: Teachers' Unions and the State 119 CHAPTER SIX: Contesting Education: Teachers' Unions versus Reformers 140 CHAPTER SEVEN: Implementing and Sustaining Change: New Arenas for Conflict 165 CHAPTER EIGHT: In Process: The Politics of Education Reform 189 Notes 207 Bibliography 233 Index 249