The ambition of the Bologna process to create the European Higher Education Area is one of the manifestations of intensified policymaking in the area of higher education in Europe. This process is marked by inherent contradictions, relatively weak policy instruments and a multitude of new actors who now appear to have a legitimate role in the process. It can be seen as a step towards a new transnational policy community with its own set of dynamics and tensions between individual and collective actors. Taking a starting point in a network perspective on a policy process, we focus the level of integration and the structure of power sharing in this community. We highlight issues related to entrance and membership, the overall stability over time, the role of coalitions in this community and formal and informal decision-making power. We conclude with a set of propositions about the relationship about network structure, actor behaviour and policy outcomes. The empirical base for the study consists of (a) biographical data on individual actors, (b) data on organisational structures and policy preferences of collective actors, and (c) official documents of the Bologna Process.
