This essay explores issues of higher education leadership, accountability and relationship with outside influences in a critique of recently proposed Swedish legislation on higher education. The paper hypothesizes that the ideal is a body of professionals as independent and responsible through their own internal professional norms. The paper argues that accountability and strong internal leadership affect the governing of academia and therefore its operating norms and basic activities. The essay opens with a discussion of the relationship between the Swedish government and that country's higher education system since the late 1960s and the recently proposed legislation. It goes on to explore the relationship between funding and the internal life of higher education institutions in part through studies of various higher education institutions in other nations. A following section discusses proposed changes in the current direction through syllabuses. The role of external interests in Swedish higher education is examined as well as the theoretical basis for developing a policy on this issue. A brief discussion of market forces in Swedish higher education leads into a longer discussion of evaluation, result-oriented management, efficiency and decentralization, and key elements of the current legislation proposed for the reform of Swedish higher education. (JB)