The Policy Governance model's philosophical foundations lie in Rousseau's social contract, Greenleaf's servant-leadership, and modern management theory. Policy Governance stresses primacy of the owner-representative role; full-board authority; superintendents as chief executive officers; authoritative prescription of "ends," bounded…

The creator of the Policy Governance model explains a system whereby the superintendent/CEO is not responsible for governance. Under Policy Governance, the board is solely responsible for describing and fulfilling its own job (determining what the public purchases for the next generation), and the administrators run the schools. (MLH)