This book examines the extent to which international organizations have shaped reforms in
education and training in federalist countries with regards to policy convergence. In advanced
democracies international organizations have become increasingly influential in government
activity. This also applies to policy fields that have traditionally been nearly exclusively
regulated by the nation-state. How strong is their influence in policy fields like education
where they rely on purely soft governance to stimulate national policies? From a political
science perspective three major initiatives are analyzed: the OECD's PISA study the European
Bologna process and the European Union's Copenhagen process. Within a few years these
initiatives have contributed to deep transformations within the education arena. This book
elucidates the processes in which nation-states comply with these initiatives using the
examples of Switzerland and the United States.
