Shifting Alliances in the Accreditation of Higher Education: On the ...

upon government money, its continuing status as a truly self-regulating profession has
become questionable.
It is beyond the scope of this dissertation to fully explore all of the implications of
the distinction that exists between self-regulating industries and self-regulating
professions, although its relevance to the accreditation of higher education will be
addressed throughout this dissertation. Two points, however, are immediately apparent.
First, given that expertise is one of the arguments that is commonly given for the use of
self-regulation as opposed to government regulation, and given that one of the defining
qualities of a professional is that s/he ―gains a specialized body of knowledge during a
long period of formal education,‖ 78 one might therefore conclude that, ceteris paribus,
professionals have a particularly strong claim to the right to self-regulate.
The second distinction is that, at least in theory, ―professionals are distinctive
because they bring a special attitude of commitment and concern to their work….‖ 79 As
noted above, one of the most common criticisms of industry self-regulation is that in
those cases in which the interests of a self-regulating industry diverge from those of the
general public, those firms that are represented within the self-regulatory organizations
should be expected to side with their own industry. In the case of professions, however,
this conclusion is not so clear. Professionals are not, at least in theory, primarily driven
by a profit motive; rather, they have taken on a responsibility to serve the public interest.
78 Cohen, The Shaping of American Higher Education, 124.
79 Freidson, ―Professional Control,‖ 2.
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