Institutional Democracy

This chapter engages with the issue of institutional democracy. It is the first chapter of substantive exploration of the public university in the spirit of real utopias. I begin with democracy because power is inextricable in the make-up of an institution. The chapter can be seen as an imaginary reconstruction of the university democracy, guided by its inherent potential. The envisioned structures of democracy in this chapter can in different forms be found in existing universities. The chapter embraces the tension between the possible and the actual, something that characterizes the real utopian project. The democracy envisioned in the chapter has elements of representative, direct and associational democracy. University governance structures and their reforms reflect wider aspirations and power constellations of specific eras. Their ‘reality’ is impermanent (but nonetheless solid). Can the state be reoriented towards the public university and the civil society? Can the two realign in substantive concerns? Can they exist in mutually supporting relations? The state’s commitment to public life depends on these questions; so too does the state’s own legitimacy. And investment in public institutions is the way forward.