Actor Constellations and Policy Making

The chapter focuses on the HE sector itself, and the way in which it shapes HE policies in the light of two different perspectives: The rst emphasizes the importance of organizational arrangements of the HE sectors for the shaping of HE policies. Then a comparative analy- sis of three countries--England, Italy and Norway is developed. The sec- ond perspective focuses on the HE sectors as areas in which organized actors pursue certain goals and values, and is used to provide a detailed analysis of policy processes. The empirical analysis is limited to the same three cases mentioned above. The chapter concludes by suggesting a possible way of conceptualizing the relationship between the organiza- tional setup of the HE sector, its policy processes, and HE policy.