Ever since the laborious consultation process to set the National Greenhouse Response Strategy (1991-1992), stakeholder 'consultation' has been something Australian governments do. Or attempt to do. A recent trend in NSW in particular has been to expand the concept and practice of consultation to multi-party, collaborative decision-making, also referred to as participatory democracy. One such initiative officially begun in August 1997 is the River Management Committee (RMC) exercise. For this tremendous outlay of financial and human resources, the government is taking a punt that the committee will deliver better decisions, and more timely actions, on river flows and water quality in each of the major regulated river valleys in the state. The set up and first year of operation of the RMC exercise is the subject of this thesis. Specifically it examines the design of the process and its appropriateness to the task at hand; the reality of consensus decision-making amongst people with opposing views; the democratic ideal of participants learning to be 'other directed' in terms of putting aside their own positions to work for the common good; and affordability of such exercises from both the government and non-government participants' points of view. The themes emerging from this thesis have become the focus for further research. / Master of Science (Hons)