Delegate Attitudes toward the Convention in the Uaw

In self-governing organizations such as large international unions, the town meeting concept of government is not a practical ideal. Instead, many unions use the convention as a means of implementing democratic values and popular control of the organization. An important ingredient in making the convention work is the attitude of convention delegates, both toward the convention itself as a significant policy-making body and their own accountability to the local union membership which they represent. This article reports on a study of the convention delegate and his attitudes at the October 1959 convention of the UAW. (Author's abstract courtesy EBSCO.)