The effect of competition is to stimulate good methods, reveal them and make them universal, and eliminate bad ones.

Frédéric Bastiat
Part 7 of 8
Pamphlets

Unity, uniformity, conformity. These are the arguments in favour of the baccalaureate, the melting pot into which the nation is ironed out. The idea may be appealing but what Frédéric Bastiat shows us is that this is an assault against diversity. According to him, freedom may not help to know where the nation is going to be driven to but it remains desirable nonetheless. Conformity requires a definition of what is conform, which implies that whatever faction is in power will impose their point of view until a new faction grabs the power and replaces it.

Today’s quote reflects adequately the advantage of freedom over authority. In education as much as other economic phenomena, competition is what allows to discover the right choices and to reject the wrong ones (unlike the political method which tends to stick to a choice, good or bad, for as long as it gets).

Other quotes from Baccalaureate and Socialism:
Part 1 of 8 – Part 2 of 8 – Part 3 of 8 – Part 4 of 8 – Part 5 of 8 – Part 6 of 8 – Part 8 of 8