Political science and the comparative study of policy change in higher education: theoretico-methodological notes from a policy perspective

Policy change is a fundamental object of interest in social sciences, and in higher education too. This essay presents several reflections for a comparative research strategy on policy change in higher education from a political science point of view. Three basic assumptions are developed: politics is not only power but also research for solutions to collective problems; the explanation of policy change calls for configurative models able to enlight the relationship between structural and individual factors; the concept of network is a fruitful analytical lens to measure and map such relationships. According to these assumptions, the author tries to emphasise how even if absolutely significant the explanative models based on macro-factors have important shortcomings in view of the diversity and the complexity of policy changes in the different national experiences. Then, the proposal is to complement the macro-approaches by analysing of the policy-making processes and the logic of action of all the actors involved. The macro-factors shape the context of micro-behaviour, restricting the alternative of choice, but the choice itself is a matter of actors.This essay is one of the first products of a larger research project on Comparative Higher Education, sponsored by the Italian National Research Council. It also originated in a two months visit to the Center for Studies in Higher Education of UC-Berkeley where I had the opportunity to think and to read in the most adequate and comfortable environment.