Assessing the strength of democratic institutions associated with modern universities: the case of the Greek university

Modelling the Collapsing University

“…In Papanikolaou et al (2021), we have presented a new association scheme for revealing dimensions of democracy within a modern university. Certain indicators that have been internationally established and validated for the measurement of the institutional characteristics of democracy and are monitored and stored in international databases were examined and assessed for their applicability to the institutional characteristics of the university, after appropriate adaptation.…”

“…More specifically, various international organizations and research programs have as their main objective the systematic creation and support of specialized, time-spanning databases using variables and indicators and composing global reports that record and highlight the quality characteristics of democracy, both locally and globally. In Papanikolaou et al (2021), an in-depth analysis of the features presented in six of the most important and representative such databases and organizations were attempted, namely: Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) (Coppedge et al 2018), The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) (Skaaning 2017), Center for Systemic Peace (Marshall et al 2017), Freedom House, (Bradley 2015), Democracy Barometer (Merkel and Bochsler 2018), Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) (Kekic 2007).…”

“…The university, on the other hand, is a multifaceted social institution with strong interactions with many and diverse sectors of society. In Papanikolaou et al (2021), an extensive literature review was conducted with the focus placed on the democratic characteristics reported in these databases. The selected papers present theories and the results of empirical studies that help in clarifying the necessary qualities a democratically structured university should have.…”

“…In Papanikolaou et al (2021), a framework was established to link appropriate measurement indicators developed for democracy with qualitative democratic characteristics of the university in order to effectively promote its institutional role. The operation and capabilities of the proposed evaluative instrument were verified, after encapsulating variations and complex interdependencies among the variables, on a real-life case study, spanning a large time period and influenced by adverse social and economic changes.…”