Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: [C-L] Consensus and Sociocracy

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Tuesday, February 11, 2003, at 10:33  PM, sbraun wrote:

> I was wondering why you lumped sociocracy and
> consensus together in the above statement. They are very different. Or
> do you have experience of both in different contexts?

The fine points of separating consensus and sociocracy are hard ones. 
Personally, I don't think they are different but it depends on your 
definition of "consensus". For most people consensus means that no one 
has objections -- they don't have to necessarily agree but they have to 
be able to live with a decision that seems to be the best one under the 
circumstances. This is the same definition sociocracy uses for 
"consent."

The definition of  consensus that everyone has reached a common 
agreement and is fully committed to the decision is only used by a very 
few groups. This is more like "solidarity" and is limited to small 
groups that spend enormous amounts of time reaching such decisions, 
usually subversive political action groups, or religious communities 
that base their decisions in adherence to and practice of a set of 
religious principles.

I've previously posted extensive OED citations for each word, consent 
and consensus. They are from the same root and historically "consensus" 
just means that everyone who is party to a decision has given their 
consent to an action. "Consensus" is the state of having obtained 
consent.

Sharon
-----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org

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