An examination of institutional restucturing and regime change in local education politics

It is well recognized that state authorities direct the actions of local policymakers through the use of a variety of direct intervention strategies, such as, mandates, financial incentives, sanctions, and takeovers. These traditional intervention strategies are used to either encourage or discourage the activities of local actors. In this research, it is argued that state actors have used another intervention toll that aims not simply to influence or coerce behavior of existing actors within existing institutions, but instead state actors have challenged the status quo by restructuring institutions and introducing new policy actors. This research further explores this restructuring by addressing the following question: (1) To what extent do external actors change local policy through the creation of new institutions and regimes?;In order to measure institutional change and regime change, the charter school movement in Michigan is used as a case study. Using the charter school movement in Michigan, the following questions are explored: (1) What impact has the creation of charter schools had on local education politics? (2) What impact has the introduction of new policy actors had on the traditional education regime? (3) How does institutional and regime change impact the policy environment?;A theoretical model is developed to explain institutional and regime change. According to this model, state intervention occurs when state actors enact policy change that leads to the creation of a new set of institutional arrangements that bypass traditional institutions. These new institutions restructure elements of the existing policy regime by introducing and empowering new actors and disempowering traditional regime members. The argument put forth is that local education has been transformed not through the enactment of a new state program or through other "traditional" intervention strategies but rather though an intentional restructuring of local institutions and regimes. In order to test this theory, regime theory is used as a framework for explaining how governing arrangements and capacity relate to policy change. A targeted, time series content analysis of newspaper articles is used to identify regime change and a change in the policy paradigm.