Participatory Democracy

First published as a testament to the legacy of the -concept made popular by the New Left of the 1960s, and with the perspective of the intervening decades, this book opens up the way for re-examining just what our role must be in the cause of democracy. With its emphasis on citizen participation, here, presented in one volume are 20 or more of the best arguments for participatory democracy written by some of the most relevant contributors to the debate, both in an historic, and in a contemporary, sense.

This wide-ranging collection probes the historical roots of participatory democracy in our political culture, analyzes its application to the problems of modern society, and explores the possible forms it might take in the future on every level of society from the workplace, to the community, to the nation at large.

"The book is, by all odds, the most encompassing one so far in revealing the practical actual subversions that the New Left wishes to visit upon us."—Washington Post

Apart from the editors, contributors include: George Woodcock, Murray Bookchin, Don Calhoun, Stewart Perry, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, James Gillespis, Gerry Hunnius, John McEwan, Arthur Chickering, Christian Bay, Martin Oppenheimer, Colin Ward.

Dimitrios Roussopoulos is a political economist who has written extensively on social and politico-economic issues. He is the author of several books including The Public Place and Dissidence: Essays Against the Mainstream, and editor of a series of three volumes entitled The Anarchist Papers. He continues to work for local democracy, ecological cities and world peace.

C. George Benello taught sociology at Goddard College, Vermont, until his untimely death. He was a Fellow of the Cambridge Institute and author of From the Ground Up: Essays on Grassroots and Workplace Democracy.