Throughout most of the history of Western civilization, Christianity and classical ideals played a dominant part in education. In most western countries, however, this is no longer the case. In modern pluralist democracies, church influence struggles with pervasive influences from elsewhere for the hearts and minds of the public. Educational policy remains, however, an instrument to be used by major power groups, and in many countries has become, to a greater or lesser extent, an active or unwitting accomplice in furthering acquisitiveness and the accumulation of material advantage. This dominant conception of education as a subordinate instrument, rather than a sovereign enterprise, is not a new one, as Hogan demonstrates in his examination of the evolution of educational philosophy. Padraig Hogan lectures in Education in Maynooth College.