The emergence – at the dawn of the new millennium – of ‘independent agencies’, ‘national commissions’ and ‘councils’ around the world, has been based and justified on grounds of ‘impartiality’, ‘reliability’, ‘democratic-principles guardianship’, or even ‘technical competence’. These ‘independent’ agencies are compared to state agencies, which traditionally have been responsible for the formulation of education policies. By using analytic tools from the Marxist, as well as from the neo-Weberian theoretical traditions, it is argued that the constitution of these new ‘independent agencies’ is a response to the post-modern State (what the author calls the ‘regulatory State’) legitimacy crisis. By including representatives from various interest parties, the dominant interests within the State mechanisms –always in accordance with the current power balance in the various social fields– vest the inherently unequal social relations with the magic cloak of ‘social partnership’.
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