GOVERNMENT-UNIVESITY INTERACTION: A COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships between government and universities, in democratic States. The article compares the debates in Latin America and Europe. This framework is particularized for Mexico to exemplify the kind of changes that are considered in the theoretical discussion. METHOD. Based on the concept of democratic state we review the factors that led to its consolidation, as well as the main models derived from the crisis of the traditional pattern during the decade of 1970: the Market, the Participative, the Flexible and the Deregulated models. RESULTS. We analyze some of the main features in the relationship between university and government in democratic States and, finally, we present some of the main dynamics to which university systems had to respond, making special reference to universities’ government and governance subjects. DISCUSSION. We conclude that changes in institutions have responded primarily to transformations occurred in the state arena, and that the types of relationship, that change over time, are the result of fluctuations in government. Regarding university autonomy we concluded that this has changed over time, from a wide and protected autonomy to a bounded and limited autonomy.