Substance Versus Politics: Through the Dark Mirror of Governance Reform

This article explores recent initiatives by the states to reform governance of public higher education. It synthesizes theoretical and empirical literature to suggest that richer understanding might result from “qualitative heuristic” treatment of multiple case studies. It proposes that data be anal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Educational policy (Los Altos, Calif.) Calif.), 2003-01, Vol.17 (1), p.98-120
Main Authors: Leslie, David W., Novak, Richard J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agenda Setting
Case Studies
Corporate governance
Educational Policy
Government Role
Grounded Theory
Heuristics
Higher education
Initiatives
Observation
Policy Formation
Politics
Public Colleges
Public Education
Reforms
State Government
States
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Summary:This article explores recent initiatives by the states to reform governance of public higher education. It synthesizes theoretical and empirical literature to suggest that richer understanding might result from “qualitative heuristic” treatment of multiple case studies. It proposes that data be analyzed to weigh the main and residual effects of political and instrumental goals of key actors in reform. Five exploratory case studies of state governance reform are summarized. Political factors were found to outweigh instrumental factors in most of the cases. The authors conclude with a discussion of fluidity in the political environment, noting that solutions seem to be continuously moving targets.
ISSN:0895-9048
1552-3896
DOI:10.1177/0895904802239288