POLITICAL AUTHORITY AND UNIVERSITY FORMATION IN EUROPE, 1200-1800

Both historical analysis and data on university formation in Europe fo r the period 1200-1800 are used to introduce a perspective which links the organizational pattern of university foundings with the structure of political authority. Most theories of higher education cannot acco unt for the pattern of university foundings. My political-institutiona l perspective interprets this pattern in the context of the relationsh ip between knowledge and authority in Western history and connects the founding and control of a university to claims to political authority . Quantitative data suggest that universities are founded least where there is a central authority with relatively low levels of competing a uthority claims (e.g., England). They are founded most in highly decen tralized regions characterized by many claims to sovereignty (e.g., Ge rmany, Italy). Intermediate to high rates of foundings occur where a m ultiplicity of local and provincial claims to authority exist within a bureaucratic state (e.g., France, Spain).