The extent of democratization of Scandinavian higher education is evaluated. Democratization is considered to include: (1) the subordination of university decision-making to parliamentary democracy and, in Sweden, to corporate representative bodies; (2) the decentralization of higher education regionally, important particularly in Finland, Norway, and Sweden; (3) equal access to college on the basis of class and gender; and (4) the internal democratization of university decision-making. The rationale underlying the distributive choices made by policymakers is also assessed. The conceptual framework for the analysis is stated by Heidenheimer, Heclo, and Adams in "Comparative Public Policy." Post-war educational reforms in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden are examined for four categories of social choice: choices of scope, choices of policy instruments, choices of distribution, and choices of restraints and innovation. The analysis suggests that Norway and Sweden have been the most successful in democratizing higher education. Denmark and Finland, while implementing significant reform measures, generally have failed to equal the level of democratization reached by Norway and Sweden; and Iceland lags behind its neighbors. (SW)