1. Joseph Hangana
Comparative Analysis
Abstract
This case study will look at Germany and Italy, mainly because both countries were the
only ones able to establish fascist governments that were successful so to speak in the history of
the world. I want to see how far the two countries had come since the end of World War II. I will
mainly be looking at the informed decision making portion of the capability approach and within
that, looking at their education structures and how they measure up to see how they compare and
as a result their relative standing in the world. This will help determine their status as virtuous or
inferior societies.
Introduction
In order for a society to properly function they need to be able to do well in the four areas
of the capability approach. When looking at both Italy and Germany and their relative scores on
the matter, it seems like there is not a major difference. Other than a slight difference in infant
mortality rate, these countries aren’t too separated in the other indexes.1 Since that is the case
there has to be a more in depth look into these numbers to see if the countries are really that close
or whether the number s are a lot more deceiving than previously thought. In order to do that I
wanted to look at informed decision making. In order to have a good society, the people within
the society have to be informed enough to make decisions to keep the society running smoothly.
That to me all starts with the education system and how it is set up in the country. Adding to that
is how the education system compares to the other country but also how it compares to the other
of the countries in the world that have similar governments or structures. From that I want to
know how education translates into real life and whether or not the education pays off for the
1 The Good Society an introduction to comparative politics by Alan Draper and Ansil Ramasay

2. society. I believe that if we were to take a closer look into the education system Germany would
clearly be above Italy because as we saw in the presentation Germany has one of the best
education systems of all developed countries in the world.
Method
For the case study I will be using the method of difference. Since I hypothesized that
Germany’s education would be better and therefore leading to a better life overall, I wanted to
see exactly if there were any differences in the school systems and what effect they had. I will be
looking at both the school systems all the way through college and even later than that to see if
the education given equates to something and seeing what the differences are from there. Upon
doing that I will be better equipped to weigh in on my hypothesis and see if Germany’s
education is better and as a result does more for its citizens.
Results
Italy
I analyzed Italy’s early education and saw what happened there. Italy’s education starts
roughly at the age of three with kids going to nursery school, essentially kindergarten. This lasts
until the age of six by when Italian kids start their formal compulsory education. They enroll in
Scuola Primaria which is primary school in Italy. In this stage the kids learn the basic studies of
school with Religious studies being optional; this portion of schooling lasts until they are eleven
years old. At eleven they enter Scuola Secondaria di Primo Grado which is their middle school
and thus starts their secondary education. Here the education continues along the early portion of
education. One important thing to note here is that there are no standardized tests taken in
secondary schools to compare across the country. Instead at the end of the third year, students sit
exams of Italian, mathematics, science, and a foreign language. They take oral exams for the

3. other subjects. It should also be noted that these exams are not all the same but change in
different regions within Italy. If they are successful then they get the Licenza di Scuola Media
(Licenza Media), essentially a diploma. After this the kids enter high school. High school is
where things start to separate in the Italian school system. There are six types of high schools
that are attended within Italy that include classical high school, scientific high school, fine arts
high school, teacher training school, artistic school, technical institutes, and lastly professional
institutes. Within high school the first two years of any of these schools are the same and the
same things are taught throughout but after that the last three years are focused on that particular
field unless it’s classical high school because that continues on the same track and as a result is
the one that most likely leads to college. After high school there are exams that need to be
passed before heading off to college which last for 3 years unless it’s for teacher qualifications in
which case it is 4 years.2 So with that information I looked to see how education equated to real
life success in Italy and the results weren’t favorable. On the PISA, Programme for International
Student Assessment, given by the OECD the average score for Italian students was 486 for
reading literacy, maths, and sciences while the OECD average was 497. In Italy, 55% of adults
aged 25-64 have earned the equivalent of a high-school degree, while the OECD average of
74%. Here is a table that I found that explains the course of students a little better within Italy.
1000 children enter compulsory
(primary+lower secondary) education
36 abandon without any certificate
964 obtain the lower secondary degree
(licenza media)
93 do not enter upper secondary education
871 enroll at upper secondary schools
2 Understanding Italy/Education

4. 77 abandon upper secondary school
128 achieve a short (3 year) secondary
diploma
666 obtain a long (5 year) secondary diploma
214 do not enter tertiary education
452 enroll at universities
104 abandon during their first year of
university attendance
41 abandon during their second year of
university attendance
136 abandon during subsequent years of
university attendance
22 obtain a three year degree (diploma
triennale)
149 obtain an ordinary 4-5 year degree (laurea)
“An additional fraction of students does not enter and/or drops out before completing
upper secondary school (16.0%) and a further fraction does not enter tertiary education (21.4%).
Nonetheless, the lowest productivity (or the highest selectivity) in relative terms is recorded in
tertiary education: only 37.8% of first year students achieve a university degree, which contrasts
with 77.1% of upper secondary school and 96.4 of compulsory schools.”3
Those were just things relating to actual school. So I went a step further and looked at the
statistics of what happens to these individuals in terms of employment and such. In Italy it is
reported that 57% of people from ages 15-64 are employed while the OECD average is slightly
higher at 66%. That rate is significantly increased with a tertiary education at 77% but without it
drops dramatically to 44% without an upper secondary education. If we look at the younger
youth who should be getting jobs right away from the education statistics show that the
unemployment rate for ages 16-24 is a staggering 29.1% with the OECD average being 16.2%.
Now the final thing I wanted to factor in was how much money was made with the education that
3 The Italian educational system: family background and social stratification by Daniele Checchi

5. was being offered and Italy still isn’t quite up to par with an average GDP per capita at roughly
34,000 USD which is slightly lower than the OECD average of 34, 466 .4
Germany
Now it is time to look at how the German school system is set up and how it equates to
life afterwards. The German education starts at the age of three like Italy with kindergarten and
this goes until the age of six. At the age of six most of the German kids go to Grundschule. This
is essentially elementary school and kids go there for four years in most states and five for a
couple others. Here they are taught the three R’s plus local history, geography, and religion
lessons if they are wanted. During the fourth year of Grundschule a decision is made as to where
the kids go after that. Their first choice is that of Gymnasium. This is the typical high school that
teaches everything and is the main lead up into college. It goes from the fifth year to the twelfth.
Roughly a quarter of kids go here and a very important note is that in the seventh grade kids
choose a Zweig which is the field that they would like to focus on for their life. If Gymnasium is
not chosen then the second option is Realschule. Here kids learn basic skills that land them a
mid-level business job. This option goes for roughly six years and after that the kids go to
vocational school for two years where they have their skills refined to be put in the middle strata
of business. After that they go on to get jobs in their fields. The last option after elementary
school is Hauptschule. This is a five year program that teaches basic skills that helps and
prepares students for apprenticeships or unskilled jobs within the job market. Upon going to one
of these three choices the students have the opportunity of going to college where the top ten
colleges in Germany are among the fifty best in all of Europe.5 So now that we have gone a little
more in depth into the German school system let’s see how that translates to real life so to speak.
4 OECD Better Life Index
5 The ABCs of the German School System: EXPATICA.COM

6. On that same PISA given by the OECD the average score for German students was 510 which
were much higher than the above mentioned OECD average 497. For Germany, 86% of adults
aged 25-64 have earned the equivalent of a high-school degree, much higher OECD average of
74. In Germany it is reported that 73% of people from ages 15-64 are employed. Remember that
the OECD average is slightly lower 66%. Just like in Italy that rate is significantly increased with
a tertiary education at 88% but without it drops dramatically to 46% without an upper secondary
education. Now when I looked at the youth and the unemployment rate for ages 16-24, I was
pleasantly surprised to see it was only 8.5 which is nearly half of the OECD average of
16.2%.Ultimately I looked at the GDP per capita for Germany and it showed that Germans make
roughly 39, 000 USD per year.6
Discussion
So when I looked past just the basic capability approach of the book but looked more into
the education systems and what they do for the society, some staggering numbers were given.
For the most part the beginning stages of the education system in these countries are the same.
They start at the same age and continue on the same path until they hit secondary education. This
is where the method of difference comes into very big play here. In Italy there are no
standardized tests that are taken. Instead they take exams at the end of the third years but no tests
to compare counter parts in different parts of Italy. As a result we saw Italy suffer immensely
when the students had to take the PISA by scoring lower than the OECD average. This is
completely different from the German system in which there are standardized tests for secondary
schools and it shows because as mentioned earlier they scored on average much higher than the
OECD difference. As we go into high school the differences become much more apparent. As
we saw in Italy there were six different high schools that kids go to and that is even before
6 OECD Better Life Index

7. college. This contrasts completely from Germany in which there are only 3 different options that
the students are given. It clearly seems to help the German system much more having less
professional schools at such a young age. I believe it helps a lot more because it helps kids focus
a little more on academics to that will help later in life instead of being automatically thrown into
specific professions at the ages of 14 or 15. It also seems to help Germany because they
statistically performed better than not just Italy but most countries within the OECD in categories
of life after education. It clearly showed that Germans get more out of their education as well
seeing how their GDP per capita was almost six thousand more in Germany than it was in Italy.
It is important to note that Germans on average spend 300 less minutes a year at work as well. So
not only are they getting much more a return on their investment in school but they are doing it
with less time as well. Lastly when looking at the unemployment rates it was clear that Italians
were inferior to their German counterparts. The biggest reason I believe was that only about half
of Italian adults have the equivalent of a high school diploma while more than 80% of Germans
have a high school diploma or better. I believe that was a very key stat when looking at the
countries’ unemployment rates within the countries for adults. Roughly 75% of the working age
population has a paid job in Germany for ages 15-24 compared to the lacking 57% of Italy’s. So
when looking at all of the results it clearly shows that Germany’s education system is doing
much better and has gotten the farthest of the two countries. I believe not having the standardized
tests is really hurting the school system because there is just no comparison to see how students
are performing among their peers, couple that with the many professional schools that go into the
Italian educational school do not let the kids focus enough on the academics they need in order to
get the jobs they need upon getting to real life.
Conclusion

8. These two countries both had some very dark years during World War II and the build up
toward the war. Fascism ravaged these two countries to the point where the world wasn’t sure if
they could recover. As time passed for the most part they have recovered and have become
active players in the world. So when I first looked at their capability scores in the book it seemed
as if the two were pretty similar in stature and pretty similar on their capability score. While that
might be true taking a more in depth look at the institutions mainly education did show
something completely different. Germany has pulled itself up and has become a legitimate power
in global politics without fascism and it is because of their education system. It is the catalyst to
the rest of their success because without informed decision making a country cannot become a
good society. Italy on the other hand lagged extremely in this approach and therefore cannot be
labeled as a good society. We see that while both the countries have left fascism behind, only
one of them has completely done it enough to become a good society and the other one still has
work to do.

9. Reference List
Draper, A., & Ramsey, A. (2008). The good society: an introduction to comparative politics. New
York: Pearson Longman.
Italian education system, Italian schools, schooling in italy, Italian nursery school, primary schools
in italy, italian middle school, high school secondary schools in italy, vocational studies in italy, academic
schools, Italian universities. (n.d.). Italian education system, italian schools, schooling in italy, Italian
nursery school, primary schools in italy, italian middle school, high school, secondary schools in italy,
vocational studies in italy, academic schools, Italian universities. Retrieved April 7, 2014, from
http://www.understandingitaly.com/profile-content/education.html
Checchi, D. (2003). The Italian educational system: family background and social
stratification. IDEAS, 1. Retrieved April 7, 2014, from http://wp.demm.unimi.it/tl_files/wp/2003/DEMM-
2003_001wp.pdf
How’s life?. (n.d.). OECD Better Life Index. Retrieved April 7, 2014, from
http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/
The ABCs of the German School System. (2011, December 9). EXPATICA. Retrieved April 7, 2014,
from http://www.expatica.com/de/main.html