Politicians and bureaucrats in a Humboldt type system: the case of Italy

The chapter deals with the rapid increase of administrative activities in the Italian higher education system as well as in its individual university with relevant consequences on the level of bureaucratization of the academic life. The Italian system of higher education – traditionally belonging to the Humboldtian model – is characterized by an unstable but substantial role of the state. In recent decades the degree of autonomy granted to the universities went up and down while the increasing amount of rules produced more bureaucracy. The introduction of the assessment policy enacted through the Agency for Quality Assurance (ANVUR) contributed to a growing amount of rules and regulation. At the same time, the juridification of the assessment processes demonstrated the confusion between the administrative/technical rules and the political will in controlling the universities’ autonomy. Meanwhile, the attempt to create a structure of governance at the level of individual university more suited with the competition among universities produced resistances from the traditional representation of scientific areas, while the growing relevance of the internal administration gave rise to a higher level of bureaucratization.