Intended to stimulate improvements in shared governance in the California Community Colleges, this report outlines the evolution and current structures of shared governance at the local and system levels and provides recommendations for change to better serve the public interest. Following a preface, chapter 1 describes the evolution of shared governance at the local level from 1907 to 1994, highlighting the movement from the broad governance originally allowed local districts to the current bilateral and legalistic governance model granting power to the State Legislature. Chapter 2 provides an analysis of shared governance at the local level, indicating that it has resulted in improvements in the nature and quality of educational decision-making but has also led to counterproductive competition for power and resources among institutions. Chapter 3 summarizes the evolution of shared governance at the systemwide level, examining the creation and transformations of the role of the Board of Governors and Chancellor's Office. Chapter 4 analyzes the effectiveness of shared governance systemwide, highlighting strengths of the current structure, related to fact that institutional participation in policy-making is more formalized, broad-based, open and effective, and weaknesses related to the competition among institutions. Finally, chapter 5 provides recommendations for improving shared governance related to instituting a code of ethics, implementing multi-institutional councils, and giving districts the authority to create additional revenue. The proposed code of ethics is appended. (TGI)