Consensus Decision Making

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Connexions Library

Beyond the Abdication of Power
Becker, Norma
Book
1978
Presents an argument against the views expressed by Kokopeli and Lakey in Leadership For Change. Raises thought provoking issues it raises and demonstrates situations and assumptions under which conse...
Blocking Progress: Consensus Decision Making In The Anti-Nuclear Movement
Ryan, Howard
Article
1983
Howard Ryan maintains that consensus is wrong in principle and in practice: "The problem is not so much that individuals are being irresponsible or somehow abusing the consensus process. The problem l...
Building United Judgement: A handbook for consensus decision making
Avery, Michel; Auvine, Brian; Streibel, Barbara; Weiss, Lonnie
Book
1981
Describes the techniques and skills which groups can apply to make the principles of consensus work effectively.
A Chill Descends On Occupy Wall Street: The Tangled Purse Strings
Tucker, Fritz
Article
2011
Undemocratic movements are vulnerable to being taken over by a vocal minority or a chraismatic individual.
The collective decides...
Landry, Charles; Morley, David; Southwood, Russell; Wright, Patrick
Article
1991
The obsession with 'process politics' leads to an obsession with all aspects of internal structure and its working. As a result, the collective can often lose sight of its larger political objectives ...
Connexions Library: Organizing Focus Page
Website
Selected articles from the Connexions Online Library.
Consensus decision-making: Connexipedia Article
Article
2010
Article about the group decision making process known as consensus decision-making.
Consensus Decision Making: An Analysis of the Literature
Hopkins, Robert
Book
1977
Includes a look at historical interest in consensus, an overview of research with critiques, and recommendations for future research. Brings together most of the current empirical findings in research...
Critique of Nonviolent Politics: From Mahatma Gandhi to the Anti-Nuclear Movement
Ryan, Howard
Book
1984
Ryan accepts that sometimes nonviolence can be effective, but says that sometimes it is not: "a principled insistence on nonviolence can in some circumstances be dangerous to progressive social moveme...
Diemer, Ulli: Connexipedia Article
Article
2010
Canadian socialist publisher, writer, and archivist.
Home!: A Bioregional Reader
Andruss, Van, Plant, Christopher, Plant, Judith, Wright, Eleanor
Book
1990
A guide to the vision and strategy of bioregionalism.
It Ain't the Meeting Its The Motion
Devon, Alexandra
Article
A guide to conducting productive and inclusive meetings in the context of social change.
A Manual for Group Facilitators: The Center for Conflict Resolution
Auvine, Brian; Densmore, Betsy; Extrom, Mary; Poole, Scott; Shanklin, Michel
Book
1977
The values, assumptions and techniques of group facilitation. Especially useful to people planning workshops. Includes sections on communication, conflict, problem solving, what can go wrong and what ...
On Organization
Wetzel, Tom
Article
Discusses the democratic organizational forms appropriate to libertarian socialist organizations.
One Vote for Democracy: Consensus vs. democracy
Diemer, Ulli
Article
1986
Makes the case that the democratic model is better than the consensus model for activist group decision-making.
Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - July 3, 2015: Greece and thd debt crisis
Diemer, Ulli (editor); Rickwood, Darien Yawching (production)
Serial Publication (Periodical)
2015
Our spotlight this issue is on the debt crisis facing Greece. To understand the crisis, one has to look beyond the mainstream media to alternative sources of information. We've done that, with article...
Other Voices: The Connexions Newsletter - September 10, 2016: Back to School
Diemer, Ulli (ed.)
Article
2016
Education - about the world, and about social change in particular - is a key element in the work that Connexions does. In this issue of Other Voices, we explore a few aspects of the ways in which edu...
Radical Digressions
Diemer, Ulli
Website
2006
Ulli Diemer's website/blog featuring comment from a radical left-libertarian Marxist perspective.
Resource Manual for A Living Revolution: A Handbook of Skills & Tools for Social Change Activists
Coover, Virginia, Deacon, Ellen, Esser, Charles, Moore, Christopher
Book
1977
A manual for people who are concerned or angered by the deterioration of our society and who, because they have some sense that their efforts can have an effect on change, are looking for tools to tra...
Social Anarchism, Individualist Anarchism, the State and Leninism: A Reply to the International Socialist Organization
Wetzel, Tom
Article
2009
I take it that social or Left-anarchism and libertarian socialism are the same thing. Both stand opposed to Leninism, and both stand opposed to individualist anarchism.
The Socialist Register 1968: Volume 5: A Survey of Movements & Ideas
Miliband, Ralph; Saville, John (eds.)
Serial Publication (Periodical)
1968
The Theology of Consensus
Kauffman, L.A.
Article
2015
Consensus decision-making has dominated social movements for forty years. Let’s try something different. Outside of small-group settings, consensus process is unwieldy, off-putting, tiresome, and inef...
Traite du Savoir-Vivre for the Occupy Wall Street Generations
Giordano, Al
Article
2011
Once upon a time, twenty thousand people descended on Wall Street, the capitol of capital, occupied it nonviolently, and won exactly what they demanded. This is not a fairy tale. It really happened. T...
Transforming Power: From the Personal to the Political
Rebick, Judy
Book
2009
Rebick champions new ways of achieving political goals by emphasizing co-operation and consensus over confrontation and partisanship.
The Tyranny of Structurelessness
Freeman, Jo
Article
1970
Contrary to what we would like to believe, there is no such thing as a "structureless" group. Any group of people of whatever nature that comes together for any length of time for any purpose will ine...
A View of the Occupy Wall Street Movement from the Inside: A Participant's Critique of the Occupation of Wall Street
Tucker, Fritz
Article
2011
The Occupy Wall Street movement was supposed to be a revolt against a hierarchal, dehumanizing oligopoly. In reality, all that was created was a microcosm of the same system, but with new leaders. Lik...
Wall Street occupation ignites mass movement
Bihn, Pham
Article
2011
The simple, horizontal structure originally created around a GA using modified consensus has become a barrier to practical and political work by the occupiers and those involved through working groups...
What is Consensus?
Article
1984
Consensus evolved from the meeting process of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). It is a non-violent way for people to relate to each other as and in a group. Successful use of a consensus pr...
Why Consensus Decision-making Won't Work for Grassroots Unionism
Wetzel, Tom
Article
2009
Wetzel contrasts consensus decision-making with democratic decision-making to explain why the latter is more suited to activist groups.
Wobblies & Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical Theory
Lynd, Staughton; Grubacic, Andrej
Book
2008
Wobblies and Zapatistas offers readers an encounter between two generations and two traditions. Staughton Lynd and Andrej Grubacic meet in dialogue in an effort to bring together the anarchist and Mar...
Working Collectively
Women's Self-Help Network for Change
Book
1984
A handbook for people wishing to form collectives, or established collectives seeking solutions to problems such as power imbalances, conflict meditation, and setting priorities.

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Bureau of Public Secrets
Articles from a Situationist perspective.
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Connexions provides information and services for advocacy groups, voluntary and non-profit organizations, and individuals, who are working for social and economic justice, environmental responsibility...
Radical Digressions
Progressive comment and analysis by Ulli Diemer, featuring articles, letters, photos and the Radical Digressions Blog.
Tom Wetzel's home page
Wetzel's writing spans a range of topics... from libertarian socialism, anarcho-syndicalism and workers' self-management to unionism, social housing, environmental justice, philosophy, and Los Angeles...

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