Governance is about execution, the ability of agents to carry out the wishes of principals. Therefore, the question explored here is how appropriately structured is the approach to governance suited for the principals’ aims given the realities of the context in which the universities operate? This chapter focuses on the nexus of two elements, bureaucratic or public sector capacity and autonomy, drawing on the framework of Fukuyama. It finds that the state-extended model appears most in low capacity and low autonomy contexts. But in other contexts with more autonomy and higher capacity different governance structures, such as the civic or internal/external models may be more appropriate. This exploration raises implications for policy makers and campus leaders. First, a group of countries have governance structures that seem out of alignment with their autonomy and bureaucratic capacity levels. It seems like some university systems have excess autonomy that may not be supported by their levels of bureaucratic capacity. Finally, those universities in countries with high capacity and high autonomy might be better served by considering a civic model of governace.