ABSTRACT
Justice and efficiency are thought to be well served by 'participation' and communication. The truth is more complex. Both participation and communication in educational as well as industrial organizations may have unintended consequences. Participation often reduces the power of participants, and communication may impair their efficiency. Headmasters have been slow to share their power. The morning assembly has all the ingredients of Athenian democracy; but in fact it is an occasion for the exercise of autocratic power. Schools are instruments of social policy and it is inconceivable that headmasters will be given power over their 'input' and their 'output". Primary schools and secondary schools differ considerably in the way power is distributed within them. The two styles of communication, consultation and participation are appropriate to their respective spheres of action. Pupils are members of a school in a different sense and on different terms from their teachers.
