Sociocracy
It draws on the use of consent, rather than majority voting, in discussion and decision-making by people who have a shared goal or work process.
[1][2][3] The Sociocratic Circle-Organization Method was developed by the Dutch electrical engineer and entrepreneur Gerard Endenburg and is inspired by the work of activists and educators Betty Cadbury and Kees Boeke, to which Endenburg was exposed at a young age while studying at a school led by Boeke.
[2] Sociocracy has informed and inspired similar organizational forms and methods, including Holacracy and the self-organizing team approach developed by Buurtzorg.
[4][5][6] The word 'sociocracy' is derived from the Latin socius meaning companions, colleagues, or associates; and the Greek cratia which refers to the ruling class, as in aristocracy, plutocracy, democracy, and meritocracy.
[7] It was coined in 1851 by French philosopher Auguste Comte,[8] as a parallel to sociology, the science that studies how people organize themselves into social systems.
Comte believed that a government led by sociologists would use scientific methods to meet the needs of all the people, not just the ruling class.
[9] American sociologist Lester Frank Ward in an 1881 paper for the Penn Monthly was an active advocate of a sociocracy to replace the political competition created by majority vote.
[11] The Dutch pacifist, educator, and peace worker Kees Boeke and his wife, English peace activist Beatrice Boeke-Cadbury, updated and expanded Ward's ideas by implementing the first sociocratic organizational structure in a school in Bilthoven, Netherlands they co-founded in 1926.
Boeke saw sociocracy (in Dutch: Sociocratie) as a form of governance or management that presumes equality of individuals and is based on consensus.
This equality is not expressed with the 'one man, one vote' law of democracy but rather by a group of individuals reasoning together until a decision is reached that is satisfactory to each one of them.
Another is his school of approximately 400 students and teachers in which decisions were made by everyone working together in weekly "talkovers" to find a mutually acceptable solution.
The constant practice of the art of sociocracy and of the education necessary for it seem to be the best way in which to further this spirit, upon which the real solution of all world problems depends."
[2] He also recognized that, in a company with a diverse and changing workforce, he could not wait for workers to trust each other before they could make collective decisions.
To solve this problem, Endenburg integrated his understanding of physics, cybernetics, and systems thinking to further develop the social, political, and educational theories of Comte, Ward, and Boeke.
As explained below, however, it is now taught through the method of three principles, as Endenburg had originally developed:[15] Decisions are made when there are no remaining "paramount objections", that is, when there is informed consent from all participants.
To emphasize the importance of making these decisions by consent in the circle meetings, Endenburg separated it into a fourth principle.
Sociocratisch Centrum co-founder Reijmer has summarized the difference as follows:[2] "By consensus, I must convince you that I'm right; by consent, you ask whether you can live with the decision".
