Our purpose is to document convergences and divergences in the mode of institutional regulation of the education systems in five European countries (Belgium, England, France, Hungary and Portugal). On the national level, partially convergent policies create, to varying degrees and with different temporal rhythms, variants of a post-bureaucratic regulation regime which seeks to go beyond the bureaucratic-professional model which remains dominant today, by highlighting either the traits of an "evaluative state" or those of the "quasi-market" model. However, beyond the influence of these transnational models, path dependencies also exist and, in addition, we witness hybridization of these models with institutional, political and/or ideological constraints specific to each country. (Contains 5 notes.)