Any effort to characterize the policymaking process in industrial democracies must include at the same time an analysis of both the organization of the state and the organized factions, parties, and interest groups that seek to influence the state. Both sides of the policymaking equation are important determinants of policy outcomes, and each interacts with the other to produce a distinctive national system of politics and policymaking. The importance of this observation is clearly illustrated when educational policymaking is examined in France and the United States. One of the most distinctive features of American public policy is the country's extraordinary commitment to education. Comparative studies of social welfare and health care policies have shown that American expenditures on public services lag behind those in most western European countries, but in education U.S. expenditures are large by comparison with other countries.' Even though local and state governments provide the great bulk of the financing for education in the American system, education is a subject of great interest to policymakers on all levels of government. Education in France is also the subject of massive government investment. In 1982, expenditures for education became the largest single item in the national budget, exceeding even defense. Although this article is limited to only one policy area, it is a centrally important one. This article shows how the institutional structures of government, the activities of the state in encouraging and interacting with outside groups, the size and power of the groups outside of government, and the relationships among outside groups influence the process through which these large expenditures are made. Governmental organization in France lends itself to the development of close, corporatist ties with outside groups. The organization of the United States government makes pluralist relationships of bargaining and compromise almost inevitable. Conflict appears to be built into the American governmental structure, while the unification of authority and the centralization of decision making in the French system appear specifically designed to mitigate conflict and to allow for coordination between the state and the largest interest groups. In the American system, power over educational policymaking is dispersed within the federal government between the department of education, the presidency, and the relevant congressional committees and is further shared with the fifty state governments and thousands of local school boards. Many important decisions are made at the state and local levels in America that would be made exclusively at the national level in France by civil servants in the ministry of education. French and American bureaucracies have similar interests in building support for their programs, and both governments support and encourage outside groups. Our data will show that bureaucracies in both countries use essentially the same decision rules in granting