The Conservative effect is notable in education, with several reforms at the department, beginning with the most (and only) successful Education Secretary Michael Gove and continuing throughout the ten Education Secretaries over the remaining ten years. The rapid churn made for inconsistent policymaking, and a lack of long-term planning. It ends with the Conservatives’ role in guiding the education system through Covid, and the return to ambitious plans under the final PM, Rishi Sunak. The chapter will also scrutinise Conservative higher education and university policy, and whether there was an opportunity wasted with universities.

Innovation depends not only on group decisions but on collaborative problem solving that implements those decisions. Collaborative problem solving requires both cognitive skills and social skills that include identifying the knowledge of other team members, establishing shared understanding, coordinating behavior, and pursuing common goals. The 2015 international test of educational progress (PISA) found that only 8% of the evaluated students excelled at these skills. Teams functioning effectively require members to have access to relevant information and then communicate, elaborate, and integrate that information to discover and defend the best solution. As teams progress through the idea generation and implementation phases, leaders must be flexible in managing this transition. Leaders differ in their style of management and different conditions require charismatic, ideological, or pragmatic leadership. Attributes of creative leadership include intelligence, creativity, and the wisdom to use these attributes for the greater good.

Giovanni Villani, in his chronicle, reports that, in 1117, Pisa and Florence formed a military alliance. Pisa asked for protection against Lucca, while their troops were busy in Mallorca besieging a Saracen stronghold (Figure 4.1).1 The safeguard from Lucca meant a Florentine military presence right at the doorstep of their neighbors, the problematic nature of which did not escape the attention of the author. Villani explains at length the measures taken by the Florentine army to avoid any potential attack on women in Pisa while their men were away.

The Venetians had a substantial stake in the local trade of the Byzantine empire and provided essential naval assistance. The chrysobull of 992 was a confirmation of existing privileges and practices. The same was true of the chrysobull traditionally dated to 1082, which Alexius I Komnenos granted to the Venetians. His son and successor John II refused to ratify the chrysobull while Manuel I Komnenos also sought to bring the Venetians to heel and adopted a bolder strategy. He challenged their control of the Adriatic and in 1171 interned Venetians resident in the empire and seized their property. The Venetians survived only because they had the Adriatic to fall back on. Venice derived its basic strengths from the resources of the northern Adriatic, which allowed them to equip formidable fleets which, in turn, helped them to dominate the Adriatic and to further their interests in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. Despite the frictions, the Venetian patriciate understood that their interests were best served by effective Byzantine government, which guaranteed the security of the seas.

In recent years, an increasing number of countries have participated in cross-national assessments in education (CNAs), but their impact remains underexplored. We argue that CNA participation increases the capacity and motivation of policymakers to implement improvements in education through mechanisms at the elite, domestic, and transnational levels. We find evidence consistent with our propositions using an original survey of 77 education officials directly responsible for the planning and implementation of CNAs in 46 countries and personal interviews with 48 officials in target states, assessment agencies, and donor agencies.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), conducted by OECD, produces every three years a very comprehensive database on the skills of 15-year-old students from a large number of countries in mathematics, reading, and science. In addition to the data on skills, PISA also collects data on student background, interests, and aspirations. Students are also asked about their expected highest level of education. In social media and in reports, OECD distributes country averages of educational expectations, a data summary that is critically evaluated in this chapter.

Although Florence was where Piero lived and where his fate would be decided, he was nevertheless sustained by an extensive web of patronal, as well as banking, relationships that stretched outside Florence into its dominion and beyond, providing Piero with support from clients and supporters that helped to sustain him in his exile with a high price on his head. Through his great-grandmother Contessina, Piero was already in close contact with his Bardi relations in the Mugello and with old feudal families in Pistoia and Siena, and his father took care to nurture his role as patron and boss by introducing him early on to these client networks and teaching him through his own example. Like Lorenzo, Piero was called ‘master of the workshop’ to describe his role as boss – even if neither enjoyed the success of Giovanni di Bicci and Cosimo as bankers. Piero was appointed head of the Medici Bank in Pisa in 1489 (aged seventeen) under the aegis of his manager Giovanni Cambi, and he enjoyed a close relationship with his cousin Nofri Tornabuoni, who became manager of the Medici Bank in Rome, both cities of strategic and cultural importance that must have contributed to his political experience if not to his banking skills.