Four million undergraduate students enroll in regional comprehensive universities each year. Numbering close to 420, these universities have been called "democracy's colleges" in recognition of their role in facilitating educational opportunity through requiring low barriers for admission, emphasizing teaching as opposed to research, and engaging in the civic and economic life of their regions. These activities have given rise to the three elements of their public purpose; specifically, they are often student-centered, regionally engaged and open access. Despite the important function regional comprehensive universities serve, they are facing unprecedented challenges created by a neoliberal public policy context that narrows their purpose to their role in improving the market. Within a neoliberal public policy context, these universities are facing rising expectations, demands for greater private sector engagement, cuts to public funding and the introduction of performance based funding. This dissertation is a qualitative case study of the institutional responses of four regional comprehensive universities in a single state to challenges created by a neoliberal state public policy context. University stakeholders including senior administrators, staff, faculty and community leaders of the four universities were interviewed. Also interviewed were national policy and education experts and senior policymakers from the state under study. Findings show that a neoliberal public policy context coupled with declining student enrollments have forced the four universities into a series of Faustian bargains about which elements of their public purpose they can afford to maintain and which they must allow to be eroded. Specifically, the universities are eschewing access missions and becoming more selective in order to enroll students who will be more likely to graduate and improve the university's standing in performance based funding allocations. Some are also curtailing regional civic engagement efforts in favor of economic development. Findings also show that universities whose organizational identities embody their public purpose are better positioned to preserve elements of their purpose within a neoliberal public policy context. Finally, two of the universities were found to be striving to create alternative models of legitimacy focused on embodying their public purpose. Implications for public policy, educational opportunity and regional public life are described.

Twenty-five leaders from the higher education and service-learning sectors provide insight into what works in building citizenship through civic engagement on their campuses and communities. From small colleges to large universities, these strong voices demonstrate that American democracy is very much active and prepared for the 21st century.

This book identifies the main factors shaping the fortunes of democracy globally. Why do some democracies in the same region and presumably subject to similar global influences remain stable while others regress? This is the question guiding all the authors of this edited book. In the search for answers, they examine 16 democracies in paired and tripled comparisons in sub-Saharan Africa, North and Latin America, East Asia, Western and Central Europe, along with two polar cases. Insights from the perspectives of history, political science, economics and international relations are offered along with a sketch of possible future scenarios. Combining approaches anchored in the analytical tradition with empirical case studies and given the broad range of topics, this book is bound to be of interest not only to students and practitioners of democracy but also to the broader academic and general readership.

Introduction -- American dreams : access, mobility, fairness -- Free minds : educating democratic citizens -- Hard facts : knowledge creation and checking power -- Purposeful pluralism : dialogue across difference on campus -- Conclusion.