Key points:
- Without democracy, America’s higher education legacy will wither
- How colleges are reimagining inclusion amid political rollbacks
- It’s time to rethink the foundations of higher education
- For more news on higher-ed policy, visit eCN’s Campus Leadership hub
Since the founding of the United States, democracy and higher education have been deeply intertwined. The early architects of the republic recognized that democracy requires an educated citizenry capable of informed participation. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, for instance, emphasized that “religion, morality, and knowledge” are essential to good governance, laying the groundwork for public schooling and civic-minded universities. Higher education, from colonial colleges like Harvard and Yale to the land-grant institutions established by the Morrill Act of 1862, became both the training ground for civic leadership and the engine of social mobility. As historian Robert Post has argued, the American system of higher education was uniquely democratic in its commitment to free inquiry, shared governance, and access as a public good.
This symbiotic relationship between democracy and education strengthened during the 20th century. The GI Bill after World War II expanded college access to millions of veterans, helping create a robust middle class and further embedding universities within the democratic fabric of society. Later, landmark ruling such as Brown v. Board of Education placed higher education at the center of national debates over equity, representation, and civil rights. Democracy and universities grew together: one supplied the conditions of freedom, and the other trained generations to sustain it.
Yet today, this partnership is under unprecedented strain. The political currents reshaping the United States threaten to sever the bond between democracy and higher learning. Rising authoritarian movements, combined with policies aimed at defunding and delegitimizing universities, suggest a profound shift in the nation’s trajectory. Project 2025, the conservative policy blueprint prepared for the second Trump administration, explicitly calls for dismantling the U.S. Department of Education and rolling back federal oversight of academic institutions. Recent attempts to restrict funding to institutions such as Harvard, framed as responses to alleged ideological bias, reveal how political actors now view universities not as democratic assets but as threats to centralized control.
The consequences of such shifts could be profound. Democracy requires institutions where ideas can be debated, tested, and refined without fear of reprisal. An autocracy, however, seeks conformity rather than critical thought. Scholars such as Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have warned that authoritarian regimes often begin by undermining independent institutions, particularly those fostering dissent and inquiry. In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government forced the relocation of Central European University, demonstrating how quickly a democracy can transform into an autocracy hostile to academic freedom. The United States, once a global model of higher education, risks following this path if democratic norms continue to erode.
Life under an autocracy would reshape the mission of higher education beyond recognition. Instead of fostering inquiry, universities could be repurposed into instruments of ideological training. Curricula would be narrowed to reflect state priorities, dissenting faculty silenced, and student expression curtailed. History offers sobering precedents: Nazi Germany’s Gleichschaltung (“coordination”) policy purged universities of dissident voices, while authoritarian regimes in Latin America and Eastern Europe used education as a tool for surveillance and indoctrination. In such systems, academic inquiry is no longer about expanding knowledge but enforcing obedience.
Artificial intelligence, a technology poised to transform higher education, illustrates this dual potential. In democratic contexts, AI can enhance equity, expand access, and personalize learning in ways that support inclusion and critical thinking. However, in autocratic systems, the same tools could be repurposed for monitoring students, standardizing thought, and suppressing dissent. An AI-enabled educational system under dictatorship might appear efficient, but it would be a sterile efficiency, void of creativity, dialogue, or democratic engagement.
The warning signs are clear. If democracy falters, higher education will not remain untouched; it will become one of the first casualties. As Yale historian Timothy Snyder has emphasized, democratic institutions are fragile, surviving only when citizens actively defend them. Universities must resist becoming passive victims of political currents and instead assert their role as guardians of truth, spaces for deliberation, and engines of democratic renewal.
The darkest hour for American democracy may be approaching, but it is not yet inevitable. Universities, educators, and students have a choice: to defend the democratic principles that have sustained higher education for over two centuries or to acquiesce to forces that would reduce them to instruments of autocracy. The stakes could not be higher. Democracy gave rise to American higher education as we know it–and without democracy, that legacy will wither. The time to act is now, before the light of inquiry is extinguished by the shadow of authoritarian rule.
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