This article deals with a critical challenge for policymakers: how can political actors become policy winners in areas where they have previously experienced resounding losses? To address this puzzle, the article develops William Riker's concept of heresthetic, which describes how clever actors can disrupt the equilibrium of the political opposition by re-framing people's choices in such a way that they are inclined to contribute to their cause. Specifically, we propose a new analytical framework that enables scholars to trace and explain the various strategies available to politicians who seek to advance seemingly detrimental or risky policies in circumstances of uncertainty and complexity. This is applied to the surprising case of education reforms advanced by Australia's Liberal-National Coalition. In doing so, the article affirms the importance of vicarious instruction for aspiring herestheticians, the media, and the citizens that they seek to manipulate.
This working paper was prepared by Glenn Fahey and Florian Köster at the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills. It lays the groundwork for developing tools that help education systems systematically improve their accountability arrangements. It is part of the Strategic Education Governance project at the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI). The Strategic Education Governance (SEG) project supports countries in identifying the best ways to achieve national objectives for education systems in a context of multi-level governance structures and complex environments. It identifies and promotes effective governance processes in the realms of accountability, capacity, knowledge governance, stakeholder involvement, strategic thinking and a whole-of-system perspective.
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