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School choice is often identified with right-leaning, voucher-happy, market-oriented public school systems like those found in the United States. Thus the proposition that a social democratic state such as South Africa will offer many primary and secondary school learners far greater choice strikes many as counter-intuitive and implausible. The authors demonstrate how three major pieces of education framework legislation conspire to create South Africa's unintended experiment in school choice.

Over the last decade, the process of economic globalization has benefited some countries but damaged others. Many poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with fragile political systems, were saddled with huge development loans and structural adjustment programs that undercut national sovereignty and reduced government capacity to support education and health. By contrast, in countries that gained from the global economy, three factors associated with this success were expansion of education, political stability, and social cohesion. State-building that favors these characteristics may improve the chances for positive integration of globalization with national economies. There is an essential relationship between educational policy and nation-building. In many African countries, stable governance and social cohesion depend upon expanding the educational opportunities, economic integration, and political participation of diverse cultural groups. This article investigates the role that policies of multi-cultural education and citizenship education might play in enabling African states to strengthen the socio-political framework that is essential for positive global economic integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]