Political-Administrative Regimes and University Governance

This paper develops a comparative organizational perspective and applies it in an analysis of decision making in 26 universities in eight European countries based on data from a comprehensive survey of university managers. We develop a theoretical perspective on university governance and decision making in universities. We question the standard assumption that university governance have moved from a ‘traditional’ to a ‘modern’ model, arguing that universities display several hybrid forms. Based on the literature on politico-administrative regimes and administrative traditions, we distinguish between four different regimes; Public interest, Rechtsstaat, Social-democratic and Napoleonic. This literature suggests that reforms in university governance are mediated by different politico-administrative regimes and path dependencies constraining internal governance processes. We argue that the politico-administrative environment affects university governance arrangements. We develop two dimensions, engagement in and decentralization of university governance, along which decision making in universities may be compared and related to concepts of university autonomy.