Education, social capital and state formation in comparative historical perspective: preliminary investigations

Abstract

The relationship between education and state formation in the United States differed from that in other countries in ways that have yet to be adequately accounted for in comparative and theoretical literatures. Specifically, in the northern United States, very high levels of mass school attendance and funding were achieved prior to and outside state initiative. Although this distinctive history of educational development in the US has been noted by scholars, existing literatures still leave largely unresolved two salient questions following from this fact: (1) What factors facilitated the earlier and greater expansion of mass education in the northern US in the absence of direct state intervention? and (2) What was the significance of this early expansion for the process of state formation itself? This article addresses these questions by juxtaposing an intensive case study of the relationship between education and state formation in New York State in the early republican era, 1790–1840, against reigning comparative historical accounts of such relationships. In the process, two factors are identified that promoted education expansion in the northern US that so far have received little attention in the comparative literature: access to corporate legal power and the distribution of wealth. Finally, it is suggested that the substantial social, financial and political capital commanded by schools prior to state intervention had a significant impact on the process of state formation in the US.