Abstract

ANGULO CAZARES, Reynaldo. Institutional Analysis of the Theory of Change of Pacto por México Education Reform: The Quest for Quality in Education. Gest. polít. pública [online]. 2023, vol.32, n.2, pp.61-95.  Epub Feb 19, 2024. ISSN 1405-1079.  https://doi.org/10.60583/gypp.v32i2.8121.

In this work, we reconstruct the implicit theory of change of Pacto por México educational reform passed at the onset of the 2012-2018 administration. Consistent with the policy of the two previous decades, its explicit aim was to improve quality of education. How would this be achieved? Modifying individual behaviors and organizational patterns through new institutional rules. This rationale was not new; it goes back to the foundation of the educational system, when its bases were being laid. In this work, we deepen and make more explicit this theory of change. Given the transformational role assigned to the rules of the game, we conducted a qualitative content analysis of its design using the Institutional Grammar Tool. We conclude that the design incorporates not only the behavioral assumptions of agency theory; it also encrypts its institutional mechanisms of change. It strips away old certainties of regulated agents; now they would transit through a corridor that the reform grafted in the old institutional edifice.

Keywords : institutional analysis; agency problems; educational policy; adverse selection; institutional mechanisms.