In response to a 'renewed interest in political and social questions, particularly by young people', a group of Melbourne University students founded the quarterly magazine Dissent in 1961. The group described themselves as 'democratic socialists', and, suspicious of political parties, aimed to give voice to those not strictly aligned with the Labor or Communist movements. Dissent has been seen as a secular version of the Catholic magazine Prospect (also produced at Melbourne University). Indeed, several former editors of Prospect were founding editors of Dissent.
Providing a forum for the discussion of social, cultural, economic and political issues, Dissent attracted a diverse group of contributors who have gone on to careers in government. These include John Button, Ralph Willis, Race Matthews, Gregory Clark, Alan Lloyd, Gareth Evans, David Scott, John Patterson and Kim Beazley. Also publishing book reviews, short stories, poetry and essays on the arts, Dissent attracted contributions from writers such as Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Bernard Smith, Harry Heseltine, Michael Wilding, Laurie Clancy and Barry Oakley. Special issues concentrated on subjects like education, women's issues and abortion, and Dissent overtly opposed the Australian and American involvement in Vietnam.
Dissent aimed to provide an alternative view to writers associated with other magazines (particularly Outlook and Twentieth Century) by representing the view of a younger generation to which the editors believed the Labor Party should appeal. In Writing in Hope and Fear, John McLaren argues that 'by taking the new culture as a matter for serious analysis, and incorporating it in political discourse, Dissent gave it a respectability that helped to make it a part of the cultural formation of a generation rather than a passing fashion of youth.'
Dissent was guided by a series of editors until 1974 when editorial duties were undertaken by an Editorial Board. Dissent continued with this arrangement for another four years, ceasing production at the end of 1978.
