Questions about the appropriateness and goals of academic collective bargaining and its historical foundations are discussed. It is contended that collective bargaining insures that the principles of academic governance are practiced democratically. European universities had been nurtured for centuries on the medieval tradition of faculty self-government. American academic governance, on the other hand, has been structured from the top down; the trustees are, in law, the college or university and can legally hire and fire faculty members and make almost all the decisions governing the institution. Labor struggles in industry and the movement by public school teachers for unionization and collective bargaining appear to be factors that stimulated the appearance of academic senates at universities. The industrialization and systemization of the university has limited faculty self-expression and resulted in losses of rights and privileges. Through collective bargaining, faculty members have sought group freedom and academic democracy. Academic democracy means the establishment of democratic structures within the academy through which rational solutions to complex problems can be worked out and mutually agreed upon. Academic democracy in teaching, the connection between academic freedom and tenure, and academic democracy in university planning and research, and in hiring and promotion practices are discussed. (SW)