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This article sketches the historical development of collegial decision-making bodies at Swedish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) within the broader political context, showing that the development of current decision-making structures at Swedish HEIs was part of a more general trend towards democratization within government agencies. Further, it traces various kinds of impact that the deregulation of the decision-making process has had on different parts of the university system, and argues that the reforms of the last decades have resulted in a growing differentiation in governance structures and forms in the supposedly unitary system of Swedish higher education. In this historical trajectory, the notion of collegiality is transformed from collective expert governance into procedures for consultation with employees by management.