Abstract
Scholars have documented a tendency of (semi-)authoritarian regimes to undermine university autonomy, mainly through organizational (de jure) changes. This paper presents a case study of a publicly triggered plagiarism investigation by the University of Belgrade into the doctoral thesis of the Serbian Minister of Finance, one of the key members of
the increasingly authoritarian regime. The analysis finds a proceduralized and delayed
response of the university’s leadership, which indicates lowered de facto autonomy from
politics, despite the university’s continually high de jure autonomy. The investigation was
closed only after a mobilization within the academic community which resulted in a university’s blockade that forced its leadership to retract the contentious thesis. The case study
shows that, in contexts of democratic backsliding, political capture can extend farther than usually thought, impacting even the implementation of internal university standards. On the other hand, the analysis also shows that political capture is not necessarily irreversible
and that academic community can mobilize to ‘undo’ it. This reinforces the notion of academic
communities as value-driven groups capable of exerting peer pressure to override
even authoritarian pressures. In order to understand the dynamic of the plagiarism inquiry in its entirety, we apply insights from theory of power to complement and overcome the limitations of the conventional theoretical frameworks on democratic backsliding and academic autonomy.
autonomy.
the increasingly authoritarian regime. The analysis finds a proceduralized and delayed
response of the university’s leadership, which indicates lowered de facto autonomy from
politics, despite the university’s continually high de jure autonomy. The investigation was
closed only after a mobilization within the academic community which resulted in a university’s blockade that forced its leadership to retract the contentious thesis. The case study
shows that, in contexts of democratic backsliding, political capture can extend farther than usually thought, impacting even the implementation of internal university standards. On the other hand, the analysis also shows that political capture is not necessarily irreversible
and that academic community can mobilize to ‘undo’ it. This reinforces the notion of academic
communities as value-driven groups capable of exerting peer pressure to override
even authoritarian pressures. In order to understand the dynamic of the plagiarism inquiry in its entirety, we apply insights from theory of power to complement and overcome the limitations of the conventional theoretical frameworks on democratic backsliding and academic autonomy.
autonomy.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 23 |
| Journal | Higher Education |
| Early online date | 20 Apr 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 20 Apr 2022 |
Bibliographical note
© The Author(s) 2022Keywords
- University autonomy
- Plagiarism
- Democratic backsliding
- Academic integrity
- Power