28 SOCIAL SCIENTIST very topical—example, what is making Gorbachev's Soviet Union so attractive is the combination of perestroika with democratisation. Economic decentralisation alone could very well have meant greater powers to managerial technocratic elites, but glasnost is coming to imply intellectual pluralism within and outside the party, workers electing managers, and efforts to revitalise Soviets. 'Liberalisation* in contemporary Britain—or Rajiv's India—in total contrast, has a clear anti-democratic, anti-labour thrust. Thatcher smashed the miners' strike; our Parliament has before it now two bills seeking to drastically curtail or eliminate collective bargaining and the right to strike. What we have to explore, in every case, are the power-relations within, and between, the autonomous units. The crucial question, always, is: autonomy for whom? Autonomous university departments, we are assured, will 'provide freedom to the teachers and students to make innovations, utilise creative talent, improve upon standards of education. . . ' (Report of UGC Committee on Scheme for Working of an Autonomous Department/Centre within the framework of a University, p. 3). How all this will happen becomes rather mysterious when we notice that a good half, or more, of an average-sized university department will be excluded, at any given time, from the Departmental Council—while there is no suggestion whatsoever for any consultation with students. The Departmental Council is to consist of the head, the immediately preceding and future heads, and 'up to three' each of professors, readers and lecturers, 'by rotation in order of seniority,' plus no less than five external experts. A clear preponderance for professors, it may be noted, for headship in most cases rotates among them alone. University teachers who happen not to be members need not be consulted even in the framing of syllabi, nor will they have any power to requisition meetings of the department—while expert panels for selection committees will be suggested 'by a committee of professors' alone. And anyway the Departmental Council 'may not meet once every quarter'—i.e., keeping in mind the vacations, maybe no more than three times a year. Its function will obviously be to 'overview* and give general 'directions' (ibid., pp. 9,10,14): day-to-day administration, often the really vital thing, thus becomes the prerogative of the head alone. A comparison with the present situation in Delhi University, say, is revealing. Departmental Councils normally consist of all members of the department; they meet frequently, sometimes as often as once a week, to discuss a very wide range of issues; expert panels are drawn up by a committee of courses with representation of all grades of teachers, including some from colleges; and—in some departments at least— syllabi are formulated with the participation of all teachers in the subject, college and postgraduate alike.