The level of interest in, and knowledge of, the representative institutions, is low.3 The authors of the study found that, among full-time rank and file partners, those most interested were men and women of over five years' service, but even in this group interest declined in the higher level bodies.• The structure of the representative bodies of the Partnership may itselfbe partly responsible for the lack of interest. In fact, many partners did display an interest in lower level participation, which confirms the evidence on this point cited earlier, but the scope of the participatory institutions does not cover many lower level matters, and the general finding was that about two-thirds of the respondents 'did not show any marked degree of interest in the Partnership's democratic institutions' (p. 127).