Universities as political institutions

Abstract

This paper explores universities as political institutions in the first place. Some principles related to interest groups, power, competition for scarce resources and negotiation in search of compromise are found to be common to businesses and the academic environment as well. We then reviewed the main characteristics of political systems which we also found to be present in universities. We argue that politics in universities is not necessarily a bad thing since using it in an appropriate, rational way is proven to have more advantages than disadvantages. Next, we analyzed universities as coalitions, looked into their sources of power and decision making processes and discussed the relationship between authorities and partisans. Finally, we discussed some leadership issues in political systems using examples from our own experience as employees in different Romanian universities*. Our concluding remarks support the idea that political action in universities may be used as an instrument for reaching goals if it is backed by leadership skills as drivers for promoting collaborative and interdependent relationships between internal and external audiences.