Exploring interest intermediation in Central and Eastern Europe: Is higher education different?

Higher education interest groups remain somewhat understudied from a comparative theory-driven perspective. This is surprising because political decisions regarding higher education must increasingly be legitimized in the eyes of students, tax-payers, the academic community and society. This article aims to advance our understanding of higher education stakeholders in post-communist Europe. In our view, the region deserves more attention, not least because students and academics were very instrumental in bringing down communism and institutionalizing democracy. First we draw on Klemenčič’s (2012; 2014) distinction between corporatist and pluralist systems in higher education. Looking at survey data from four countries – Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia – we examine to what extent post-communist democracies have established corporatist institutions to facilitate the political participation of various crucial stakeholder organizations – e.g. students unions, academic unions, rectors’ conferences, etc.. Then we address whether higher education organizations enjoy privileged access to policy-makers compared to those from other policy areas, while engaging with the argument that higher education is a particular case of “stakeholder democracy” in a region otherwise characterized by weak civic participation and corporatism. To wrap up, we discuss different “mutations of higher education corporatism” in each country.