Consensus democracy is the application of consensus decision-making Consensus decision-making is a group decision making process that not only seeks the agreement of most participants, but also the resolution or mitigation of minority objections. Consensus is usually defined as meaning both general agreement and the process of getting to such agreement. Consensus decision-making is thus concerned primarily with to the process of legislation in a democracy Democracy is a political form of government where governing power is derived from the people, either by direct referendum or by means of elected representatives of the people (representative democracy). The term comes from the Greek: δημοκρατία - (dēmokratía) "rule of the people", which was coined from δῆμος (dêmos) &. It is characterised by a decision-making structure which involves and takes into account as broad a range of opinions as possible, as opposed to systems where minority opinions can potentially be ignored by vote-winning majorities.[1]
Consensus democracy also features increased citizen participation both in determining the political agenda and in the decision making process itself. Some[who?] have pointed to developments in information and communication technology Information and Communication Technology or ICTs allow users to participate in a rapidly changing world in which work and other activities are increasingly transformed by access to varied and developing technologies as potential facilitators of such systems.
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Examples
Consensus democracy is most closely embodied in certain countries such as Switzerland, Lebanon, Sweden Sweden (pronounced /ˈswiːdən/ SWEE-dən, Swedish: Sverige [ˈsvær.jə]), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige (help·info)), is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and water borders with Denmark, Germany and and Belgium Belgium (pronounced /ˈbɛldʒəm/ , BEL-jəm), officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres (11,787 sq mi), and it has a, where consensus is an important feature of political culture, particularly with a view to preventing the domination of one linguistic or cultural group in the political process.[2] The term consociational state Consociationalism is a form of government involving guaranteed group representation, and is often suggested for managing conflict in deeply divided societies. It is often viewed as synonymous with power-sharing, although it is technically only one form of power-sharing. Consociationalism is often seen as having close affinities with corporatism; is used in political science to describe countries with such consensus based political systems. An example of such a system could be the Dutch The Netherlands (pronounced /ˈnɛðɚləndz/ ; Dutch: Nederland, pronounced [ˈneːdərlɑnt] ( listen)) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in North-West Europe. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany Poldermodel.
In Canada The land occupied by Canada was inhabited for millennia by various groups of Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored, and later settled, along the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three, the territorial governments of the Northwest Territories Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south. It has a land area of 1,140,835 square kilometres and a population of 41,464 as of the 2006 census, an increase of 11.0% from 2001 and Nunavut Nunavut comprises a major portion of Northern Canada, and most of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, making it the fifth-largest country subdivision in the world. The capital Iqaluit on Baffin Island, in the east, was chosen by the 1995 capital plebiscite. Other major communities include the regional centres of Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay also operate on a non-partisan Non-partisan democracy is a system of representative government or organization such that universal and periodic elections take place without reference to political parties consensus government Consensus government is a non-partisan, democratic system of government in use in two Canadian territories. Consensus government is also in use in Guernsey in the Channel Islands model, unlike the oppositional political party A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to attain and maintain political power within government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions. Parties often espouse an expressed ideology or vision bolstered by a written platform with specific goals, forming a coalition among structure that prevails elsewhere in Canada.
Consensus (non-party) government also operates in Guernsey The Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown Dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy in the Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey, neither of which is part of the United Kingdom; rather they are considered the remnants of the Duchy of Normandy. They have a. Guernsey also operates a non-ministerial system of government in which government departments are headed not by ministers with executive authority, but by boards or committees of five members. A proposition to introduce executive/cabinet-style government was heavily defeated in the States of Deliberation (Guernsey's parliament) when the matter was last debated in 2002.
See also
- Anticipatory democracy Anticipatory democracy is a theory of civics relying on democratic decision making that takes into account predictions of future events that have some credibility with the electorate. The phrase was apparently coined by Alvin Toffler in his book Future Shock, and was expanded on in the 1978 book Anticipatory Democracy, edited by Clement Bezold
- Bioregional democracy Bioregionalism is a political, cultural, and environmental system based on naturally-defined areas called bioregions, or ecoregions. Bioregions are defined through physical and environmental features, including watershed boundaries and soil and terrain characteristics. Bioregionalism stresses that the determination of a bioregion is also a
- Confessionalism (politics)
- Consensus decision-making Consensus decision-making is a group decision making process that not only seeks the agreement of most participants, but also the resolution or mitigation of minority objections. Consensus is usually defined as meaning both general agreement and the process of getting to such agreement. Consensus decision-making is thus concerned primarily with
- Consociationalism Consociationalism is a form of government involving guaranteed group representation, and is often suggested for managing conflict in deeply divided societies. It is often viewed as synonymous with power-sharing, although it is technically only one form of power-sharing. Consociationalism is often seen as having close affinities with corporatism;
- Deep democracy The term Deep Democracy was developed by the physicist Arny Mindell, and is a methodology developed to foster a deeper level of dialogue and inclusivity. It is a psycho-social-political paradigm, which first appeared in 1988 in the book Leader as Martial Artist
- Deliberative democracy Deliberative democracy, also sometimes called discursive democracy, is a system of political decision-making that relies on popular consultation to make policy. In contrast to the traditional theory of democracy, in which voting is central, deliberative democracy theorists argue that legitimate lawmaking can arise only through public deliberation
- Demarchy Demarchy is a form of democracy in which the state is governed by randomly selected decision makers who have been selected by sortition (lot). These groups, sometimes termed "policy juries," "citizens' juries," or "consensus conferences," deliberately make decisions about public policies in much the same way that
- Democracy (varieties) Direct democracy, classically termed pure democracy, is any form of government based on a theory of civics in which all citizens can directly participate in the decision-making process. Some adherents want legislative, judicial, and executive powers to be handled by the people, but most extant systems only allow legislative decisions
- Direct democracy Direct democracy, classically termed pure democracy, is a form of democracy and a theory of civics in which sovereignty is lodged in the assembly of all citizens who choose to participate. Depending on the particular system, this assembly might pass executive motions, make laws, elect or dismiss officials, and conduct trials. Direct democracy
- Grassroots democracy To cite a specific hypothetical example, a national grassroots organization, would place as much decision-making power as possible in the hands of a local chapter instead of the head office. The principle is that for democratic power to be best exercised it must be vested in a local community instead of isolated, atomized individuals, essentially
- List of politics-related topics
- Minoritarianism Minoritarianism is a neologism for a political structure or process in which a minority segment of a population has a certain degree of primacy in that entity's decision making
- Open politics Open source governance is a political philosophy which advocates the application of the philosophies of the open source and open content movements to democratic principles in order to enable any interested citizen to add to the creation of policy, as with a wiki document. Legislation is democratically opened to the general citizenry in this way,
- Open source governance
- Sociocracy Sociocracy is a system of governance using consent-based decision making among equivalent individuals and an organizational structure based on cybernetic principles. Its most recent implementation by Gerard Endenburg was developed as an alternate means of governance for private enterprise, but has been adopted in all kinds of organizations
References
- ^ Glossary definition from Direct Democracy in Switzerland
- ^ Lijphart, A., Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms & Performance in Thirty-six Countries. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-300-07893-5
External links
- Consensus Democracy: A New Approach to 21st Century Governance
- Metagovernment - Project using the wiki Wikis may exist to serve a specific purpose, and in such cases, users use their editorial rights to remove material that is considered "off topic." Such is the case of the collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia. In contrast, open purpose wikis accept content without firm rules as to how the content should be organized consensus model as a replacement for current governments.
- On Conflict and Consensus - A Handbook on Formal Consensus Decisionmaking.
- Consensual Democracy - Online primer on the key concepts and ideas of consensual democracy.
Categories: Democracy Categories: Forms of government | Political systems | Liberalism
Washington Post (blog)
It could have the effect of forcing compromise during the amendment process to achieve consensus . And, most importantly, these changes would retain the ...
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