Legislating Institutional Control: State Power and University Governance in an Era of Democratic Backsliding

• In Event: Political Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Authoritarianism (Table 7)

Abstract

This paper examines recent state-level legislation regulating U.S. higher education to analyze how law is being used to restructure institutional authority. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of 23 enacted bills across 18 states (2021–2025), the study identifies recurring legislative strategies that extend beyond symbolic cultural politics to institutional redesign. Across cases, three patterns consistently emerge: restrictions on curriculum and instruction, elimination or limitation of diversity, equity, and inclusion infrastructure, and shifts in governance authority away from internal faculty bodies toward politically appointed boards and administrative actors. These provisions are frequently coupled with enforcement regimes – such as funding conditions, reporting mandates, and compliance audits – that increase the costs of institutional noncompliance.

Rather than treating these policies as isolated responses to discrete controversies, the analysis shows that they function as coordinated governance interventions embedded in legal and administrative structures. Situating these findings within scholarship on democratic backsliding and institutional change, the paper argues that contemporary higher education legislation represents a broader mode of political regulation operating through formal institutional channels. By focusing on legal design and governance mechanisms, this study contributes to understanding how state policy can reshape institutional autonomy and redefine the boundaries of permissible knowledge production within democratic systems.

Author

• Kylee A. Montgomery, The Ohio State University