Who gets to decide on the literature "canon"?

Answer 1

It's a fluid process, but it includes critics, reviewers, professors and textbook editors. Academics continually engage in the process of building up and tearing down the canon so that it changes over generations.

Answer 2

All the readers of the world. In other words, the elite. The educated ones. Those books which are still read a hundred years after their publication are definitely in the Canon, the question though is 1st, 2nd, or 3rd tier?