The Change of Public Participation in Swiss School Governance: More or Less Public Legitimisation?

Public municipal school councils are the traditional form of public layman participation in Swiss local school governance. We observe a reduction and professionalization of traditional public school councils and an institutionalization of councils involving only parents. It is however not clear whether these parent councils are intended to enhance public co-determination or not. My paper addresses the question why some Swiss cantons institutionalized parental councils while others did not and what the rationale was behind this institutionalization. I draw on a comparative case study design to answer these questions: one canton with newly institutionalized parent councils and one with traditional councils. I also investigate the democratic quality of both old and new forms of school councils by looking at co-determination rights, the electoral process, and the composition of school councils. The analysis shows that the most important factors for the institutionalization of the new parent councils are the education department's governance strategies and political actors’ recognition of parent councils' benefits. The top down institutionalization of parent councils is more likely if parents are recognized as a powerful group of voters and if leaders see the inclusion of parents as a way to enhance the acceptance of school reform projects. However, parent councils have rather an economic than a democratic function: Parents support schools with feedback and the organization of school activities without having co-determination rights. Parent council representatives are mostly middle class females. It shows the recruitment problems of these new institutions as it is difficult to find laymen for this job. The implementation of parent councils and the reduction of public school councils thus indicate a change from public participation to stakeholder participation. The involvement of stakeholders provides the local government with a greater capacity for responding to stakeholder demands but not for the demands of the entire public.