| Summary: | <p>This article contains an analysis of specific instances of educational-reform failure in contemporary Guatemala. The purpose is to throw into relief those aspects which should be confronted in designing and implementing processes of educational reform in the context of weak nations with pre-modern features. One of these fundamental aspects is the need to study carefully the administrative and power structures within the government, with the aim of locating the channels of real and nominal decision-making. It is also argued that the principle of parallel liberty allows an understanding of the formation and reinforcement of parallel power structures, and that these are found outside the official bureaucratic channels. It is further argued that the administration and formulation of educational policies cannot be summed up in simple modernization schemes that do not take into account the particular sociohistorical conditions in which the educational systems originated.</p>
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