The “Great Refusal” and Social Theory, 1961–1981 109
collection of essays arguing in favor of university reform. Arguing
in a manner analogous to his interpretation of the Sozialstaat
clauses half a decade earlier, Habermas wrote that the freedom of
scholarship guaranteed by the German constitution “... must be
interpreted today in the sense of subjective rights to participation.”^88
In May 1966, the debate entered a new phase when the Federal
Council on Education and Culture (Wissenschaftsrat) proffered its
recommendations for change. Habermas agreed with the students
who were “rightly outraged” by the “cosmetic” recommendations.^89
Habermas rejected both the suggestions for a mandatory limit of
four years’ study time and the exclusive orientation of studies to
preparation for career, asking, “Do we really want the university
in streamlined form?”^90 Habermas notes that the Federal Council’s
proposals were a clear turning point in student perceptions of the
reforms, leading the students to “conceive of university reform as
technocratic” in nature.^91
In a January 1967 lecture, Habermas suggested that conserva-
tive professors most likely would read the latest recommendations
“... as a technologically conceived strategy for adaptation and adopt
it”; alternatively, they could “... interpret it... in accordance with
the so-called progressives.”^92 In the summer of 1968, Habermas
declared the proposals of the Federal Council to be “old wine in
new bot t les.”^93 In November, the Education Ministry adopted
the Federal Council’s recommendations on the administrative
reorganization of the universities. In a February 1969 essay enti-
tled, “Recommendations for a Technocratic University Reform?”
Habermas rejected the ministry’s reforms in favor of a counterpro-
posal developed by the Hessian Culture Minister Ernst Schütte.^94
Habermas’s writings on university reform drew extensively
on the discourse on technocracy of the middle to late 1960s. He
(^88) Habermas, “Vorwort zu Hochschule in der Demokratie” ( January 1965), in
PuH, 91.
(^89) Habermas, “Studentenprotest,” in PuH, 158.
(^90) Habermas “Zwangsjacke,” in PuH, 107; orig. Der Monat (November 1966).
(^91) Ibid., 92.
(^92) Habermas, “Universität in der Demokratie,” in PuH, 121; conference at the
Free University, Berlin, ( January 20, 1967).
(^93) Habermas, “Heilige Kühe der Hochschulreform,” in PuH, 217; orig. Die
Zeit (September 27, 1968).
(^94) Habermas, “Empfehlungen zur technokratischen Hochschulreform?” in
PuH, 235; orig. Festschrift fur Ernst Schütte (February 1969).