Global Higher Education and Local Context

Abstract

Nation-states are identified as local contexts, because this is the setting where higher education is taking place. The state is an institution dated back to ancient times, and theorized during the period of Greek classic philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. According to Tilly (1990), the traditional state existed as early as around 6000–8000 BC. Eisenstadt (1963) characterized the traditional state as “city-states, feudal systems, patrimonial empires, nomad or conquest empires and centralized historical bureaucratic empires” (p. 10). The traditional state existed through its strong, autocratic power that exercised control over some territories and coercion over people residing inside such territories. Held (1992) asserted that the traditional states were characterized by (a) traditional tribute taking empire, (b) feudalism systems of divided authority, (c) polity of estates combining power and corporate needs, and (d) absolutist states. It is fair to say that the traditional states lacked the form of political, economic, and administrative organizations that could help them resist the big tests or challenges of time or history. The traditional states were replaced by the modern states, which Mann (1993) believed are the product of the twentieth century, particularly the context after World War II. Although there are still models of traditional states in modern world, such states constitute an exception and not the norm.