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This paper presents a point of view toward formal organizations which departs from the equilibrium models contained on both bureaucratic and open system theory. Specifically, a conflict perspective is taken in terms of which organization disequilibrium is understood to be typical of organizations as a consequence of their being continually subject to the threat of withdrawal of monetary and non-monetary supports from both internal members and external publics with which organizations are interdependent. The factors contributing to these circumstances of conflict are attributed to recent maturations of rights of citizenship and participatory democracy, the social organization of these sources of conflict are termed the “nutcracker” effect.

The replacement of a machine which deteriorates at a random rate is considered. We measure this deterioration in terms of a cost per unit time—i.e., a cost-density γ(t) where t is the age of the machine. Given the probability distribution of γ(t) and the replacement cost R(c, t) when γ(t) = c, we discuss optimal replacement using two different procedures: (1) replacement at a fixed age (2) replacement when the cost-density reaches a given value Expressions are derived for the resulting costs incurred in using either procedure over a long period of time. Method (2) is in general preferable.

Participant democracy in the classroom was shown to be effective in enhancing learning through project methods. Students learned to gather and evaluate data on their projects, and student-parent involvement led to formulating courses of action in the community. Mental health professionals helped to encourage teachers to anticipate opposition and find integrative methods of dealing with it.

Critical analysis of the general goal of citizen participation reveals basic conflicts between participatory democracy and professional expertise. Planners and other urban professionals have encountered many problems in attempting to encowage citizen participation in commzniiy decision-making. Some of the dilemmas can be resolved by recognizing and adopting a strategy of participation specifically designed to fit the vole and vesoiirces of the particular organization. Five types of strategies are identified: education-therapy, behavioral change, staff supplement, cooptation, and community power.

Students, faculty, administration, the pro fession, and the community all have crucial responsibilities in the development of policy in schools of social work. Unfor tunately, until recently little has been done to develop clarity of role, authority, and responsibility of the parties involved. This role confusion has been most apparent re garding the status of students, in particular, and, by implication, of faculty. This paper is an effort to suggest some guidelines with particular emphasis on the student role in the development of school policy. In the present discussions, negotiations, and confrontations related to student par ticipation in policyand decision-making in schools of social work, one thing is quite clear; social work educators emphasize and place a high value on the process of student socialization. Academic institutions exist for the trans

Concepts of “participatory democracy” in the decision-making process as practiced in current Economic Opportunity and Model Cities programs are examined. Not in terms of the “rightness or goodness” of the concepts, but rather in terms of the effect participation has on making implementable decisions within our social milieu.Participation is viewed as a critically necessary aspect in the generation and control of social power. As such, individual participation tends to be induced rather than volunteered; of a heterogeneous base more often than of a homogenous base; highly specialized and limited in both content and timing of involvement in the total decision-making process.The consequences of adding units of participation to the decision-making process are examined in terms of “participation returns model.” Using this Returns Model, the author asserts that educators and community development workers tend to over-invest participation inputs for effective and efficient decision implementation. He cal...

Two main controversies-over territorial grounding and over the range of functions-have divided theoretical research on community into four main research traditions. Each of these is discussed in terms of its development, contributions, and inadequacies. Other controversies-over participatory democracy, over local autonomy, and over the role of physical design–are examined in relation to efforts to construct communities.

Criticism of the administrative process continues to be more cogent than proposed reforms. Some charge that the malaise afflicting agencies is fundamental because it is the inevitable consequence of the dominant pluralistic philosophy. According to Theodore J. Lowi, this philosophy erodes public authority by asking government merely to ratify bargains struck by competing interest groups. Lowi's principal "radical reform" is a quixotic call for the revival of the doctrine that it is unconstitutional to delegate law-making powers to agencies without meaningful legislative standards to circumscribe them. Proponents of participatory democracy charge that agencies satisfy claims of strongly organized groups but not of the weakly organized or unorganized. But participatory democ racy is not a panacea and would produce injustices of its own. Probably never before in our history has legal policy been so supportive of the rights of individuals and groups affected by administrative action to be heard and to influence the action taken. Agencies must be receptive to this participatory policy. But they are not umpires or mediators and must be prepared to make conscious value choices in the light of the fullest avail able knowledge and to defend their choices in the name of jus tice.

Thirty-one congressmen or their aides were interviewed by two pairs of students, one pair role playing the political left, the other the political right, in an effort to determine if questions on current political issues would be differentially answered as a function of the role taken by the interviewer. While the results were not conclusive, key findings were as follows: (a) it is difficult for students identified with a political group to obtain and conduct an interview with a congressman; (6) answers recorded by the interviewers vary reflecting the political orientation of the interviewer; and (c) letters of inquiry on these Same controversial issues go unanswered. It seems that it is difficult for an interested young partisan to accurately assess the politics of his representative–a challenge to participatory democracy.

The history of an early experiment in participatory democracy is reviewed in the light of modern interest in community-action programs.

During its evolution from the sit-ins and picket lines of 1960, student protest in the universities broadened its base and became more politically active. Increasingly, students became aware of the logical interrelationships between issues being protested within and outside of the universities, and of the stifling effect exerted upon all dissent by the politi cal institutions of the Establishment. Stimulated by the ideas of men like Paul Goodman, Robert Nisbet, C. Wright Mills, Erich Fromm, and Edgar Z. Friedenberg, students rebelled against the Establishment philosophy of "corporate liberal ism," best exemplified, in their view, by the idea of the uni versity delineated in Clark Kerr's The Uses of the University. The students counterposed their own concept of "participatory democracy," as embodied in Tom Hayden's Port Huron State ment of 1962, against corporate liberalism in the university. The revolt at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964, the widespread, and often successful, student protests against university dismissals of faculty members, the "free university movement" which began at San Francisco State College in 1965, and, most recently, the rebellion at Columbia University in 1968—all reflect both the ideology and the activism of the educational protest movement.—Ed.

The author makes a valid point that "the general problem of how to involve students in the general operation of the school is advanced by the principles of participatory democracy." He explains how it works in his school.

The working group agreed that major issues could be subsumed under two questions: (1) what are the effects of information systems, and (2) what are the policy implications of these effects. The effects may be (a) physical, psychic, social, or (b) personal, ethic, moral. These effects might be studied in the following circumstances: (a) on individuals and special groups; (b) in developing vs developed countries; (c) on the development of Third World countries; (d) on system operators and programmers; (e) on participatory democracy; (f) on management; (g) on other systems.

The first volume of Tocqueville's Democracy in America derived much of its almost instant notoriety from its elaborate discussion of the complex American scheme of governmental institutions and administrative decentralization.' This discussion remains highly relevant for democratic theorists as can be seen by the fact that both the contemporary liberal argument for "participatory democracy" and the traditional conservative distrust of "big government" lead to some consideration of the decentralization of large modern nations. In fact this issue reveals a confusion in the contemporary debate between liberals and conservatives that Tocqueville's analysis could go far towards clarifying.

The most urgent question facing the United States is whether our democratic institutions, as presently constituted, are capable of resolving the accelerating problems menacing the immediate future (47)(48)(56). The extent and severity of this crisis in democratic institutions is the subject of considerable debate (18)(29)(89), but most democrats agree that reforms are necessary. The democratic reform alternatives are numerous, but they can be clustered into two major categories: (1) proposals for strengthening contemporary representative democracy, and (2) proposals for replacing representative democracy with participatory democracy. The general purpose of this essay is to discuss some of the arguments for and against maximal citizen participation as a reform alternative.

This paper aims at discussing the ideas of citizenship, social control and solidarity networks and its articulation with the exercise of the participatory democracy. Through literature review on the use of the concept of social control, it seeks to establish its Anglo-American conceptual and historical basis. Also, it addresses its use by the Brazilian scientific production on the concept which, since post-constitutional public policy-making restructuring, refers to it as a societal regulatory mechanism for public decision-making. Using these elements for the debate, the paper discusses the potentials, obstacles, limits, dilemmas and strategies regarding social participation in public policy-making in Brazil.

The editor calls on the nation's colleges and universities to become more involved in the many problems and issues that face our democracy.

The lawmaking process has diffused substantially in the past years, resulting in an increasing maze of departmental subordinate legislation. This phenomenon has not been accompanied by parallel development of controls resulting in complaints about "bureaucracy", red-tape, inaccessability, and poor draftsmanship, and in demands for review and control. Professor Arthurs recognizes the practical inevitability of the system, but discusses the present situation critically, suggesting reforms which might help to make the regulatory process more compatible with "participatory democracy".