This study breaks new ground in examining how political factors helped lead three countries with highly regarded education systems to evolve quite different structures and processes in their secondary and higher education sectors

I: Historical Development and Emergent Distinctions; 1: Political Transformations, Educational Traditions, and the Changing Role of Governments; 2: Three Paths to Modern Education: Swiss Contrasts to Japan and Germany, 1850-1950; II: How and Why Secondary Schooling Differs; 3: Comparing Structures and Selection Reforms Across Secondary School Sectors and Countries; 4: Post-1970 Reform Struggles and the Restructuring of Meritocratic Selection Systems; 5: Vocational and Dual System Credentials in the Context of Changing Labor Markets; III: Appraisals amid Contending Paradigms; 6: Bureaucratic and Judicial Control and Monitoring of Schools and Teachers; 7: Locality and Gender Inequalities in Access to Education: National and Subnational Contrasts; 8: Assessments of Student Attainment through National Exams and International Testing; IV: Channeling Expansion in Higher Education; 9: Universities in the Higher Education Matrix: How Growth Patterns Differed; 10: University Finance and Student Mobility: Recruitment to National, Land, and Private Universities; 11: Regime and Professional Contexts of Higher Education: Between Academic Breadth and Specialism; V: Approaches to Comparative Appraisal; 12: Categorical Imperatives and Contingent Outcomes