POLICY ACTION AND SCHOOL DEMAND IN KENYA - WHEN A STRONG STATE GROWS FRAGILE

Comparative scholars are beginning to specify the conditions under whi ch central states can act Kith independence vis-a-vis economic forces to penetrate local cultures and families, influencing parental demands placed on local institutions, such as demand for more schooling. Much less is known about (1) which specific forms of state action are effi cacious in manipulating family demands, (2) whether boosting demand fo r more services can undercut their quality, and (3) why central politi cal capacity to shape family action varies and may erode over time. To Inform these issues we focus on two distinct periods in Kenya, stretc hing over the 1963-1990 post-independence era. We show, using time-ser ies analysis, how the Kenyan regime initially boosted family demand fo r more schooling through discrete policy initiatives: reducing the pri vate cost of school attendance, offering food supplements at school, a nd broadening secondary school opportunities for peripheral ethnic and class groups. But after two decades of efficacious state action, loca l demand for schooling began to falter, quality eroded severely, and s tratification has again hardened. After identifying the early effects of these policies we detail how the Kenyan state has grown more fragil e, less effective in shaping family demands and delivering quality edu cation against the backdrop of a declining economy. The case of Kenya reveals weaknesses in Western sociological theories that fail to recog nize domestic political and organizational constraints besetting centr alized Third-World states, even those once considered strong.