Participatory Democracy and New Left Student Movements: The University of Sydney, 1973–1979

Participatory democracy was one of the core tenets of the New Left student movements that emerged in Australia in the 1960s. However, scant attention has been given to the idea within the literature on the New Left. This article examines an experiment in participatory democracy that took place in the Department of Philosophy at Sydney University in the 1970s. Following a series of strikes, the Philosophy department was split in two, with one half, the Department of General Philosophy, operating under a democratic constitution for six years from 1973 to 1979. This case study reveals a great deal about the intellectual history of the student New Left and the centrality of participatory democracy within it.