The political economy of adult learning systems—some institutional features that promote adult learning participation

Recent years have witnessed an increasing scholarly interest in the study of education, training, and skill formation from a comparative political economy perspective. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the emerging field of the political economy of adult learning systems, which seeks to understand the causes and consequences of cross-national diversity in adult learning systems. The article introduces this interdisciplinary research strand by reviewing recent work and different typologies that have emerged out of the field of comparative economics and comparative politics, which are relevant to the study of adult learning systems. The empirical evidence on cross-national patterns of organized adult learning drawn on PIAAC data suggests that existing typologies are insufficient to explain the cross-national patterns. The article discusses some specific institutional features that promote adult learning participation and points out conditions and policies that support effective adult learning systems.