The aim of this contribution is not to make the point about the difficulties faced by the comprehensive school but to try to elaborate a common matrix in order to think the way education policies in different European countries get progressively out the comprehensive school system. We will analyze two extreme cases, England and France. In England, after a time of a violent denunciation, the change of course has been clearly claimed and theorized through a neo-liberal ideology or through the Third Way’s technocracy (Ball, 2008).  In France, the crisis of the “college unique” is very well known but it would be politically incorrect to question its principles (Derouet, 2003). Reformers do not propose a rupture but some shifts and reformulations. This comparative perspective requires a reflection on the links between science and politics. While the schooling of 11-15 years old was the focus of studies during 1960-70s, this issue was progressively abandoned through the 1980s and research interests moved towards other topics:  local governance, accountability, professional identities, higher education, etc. At the political level, the end of the XXth century was characterized by the emergence of other definitions of common good: performance, effectiveness, competition, recognition of cultural and ethnic differences, quality of provision, etc. (Gewirtz, 2002, Gewirtz, Cribb, 2008) How can we explain this parallel evolution ? A lack of interest in education as a public problem within the society ? The effect of public ordering on educational research ? The issue can be questioned through political sociology in order to follow the parallel reformulation of justice and the State (Boltanski, Thévenot, 2006). European recommendations an directives shift the hopes of the previous period from democratization of compulsory schooling to Lifelong Learning. The ideal of equality was linked to the project of the Welfare State. Now, the Post-Welfare State promotes a diversification of principles of justice through different conceptions: Third Way, Evaluative State, Active Welfare State, Managerial State (Clarke et alii, 2000). This new formulations need to be investigated through empirical studies.

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