Despite substantial government investment in education in developing countries over the past 4 decades, progress has been uneven and large groups still have very limited access. Since the public sector is unlikely to ameliorate this situation, many countries see an increasing role for the private sector. This paper summarizes current knowledge…

The system in the Netherlands of "privatization," a government policy of financially supporting private schools and encouraging people to use them, depends on conditions in Dutch society that are conducive to a large nongovernment, nonprofit sector. These include cultural heterogeneity, coupled with the lack of a single dominant culture…

Although education and other quasi-public services are financed by the government in both Holland and Sweden, the public/private division of finance and provision of these services that exists in Holland has no counterpart in Sweden, where provision of services is delegated to local governments and the private nonprofit sector is negligible.…