Consensus democracy

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Consensus democracy is the application of consensus decision making to the process of legislation in a democracy. 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. Consensus democracy also features increased citizen participation both in determining the political agenda and in the decision making process itself. Some have pointed to developments in information and communication technology as potential facilitators of such systems.

Consensus democracy is most closely embodied in certain Western European countries such as Switzerland or Belgium, 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. The term consociational state is used in political science to describe countries with such consensus based political systems. An example of such a system could be the Dutch Poldermodel.

The concept of ijma in Islam also addresses state decision making by consensus, albeit by the ulema (Muslim scholars) rather than the population at large.

See also

• Anticipatory democracy
• Bioregional democracy
• consociationalism
• Consensus decision-making
• Deliberative democracy
• Demarchy
• Democracy (varieties)
• Direct democracy
• Grassroots democracy
• List of politics-related topics
• Minoritarianism
• Open politics
• Open source governance
• Sociocracy

References

External links

• Consensus Democracy: A New Approach to 21st Century Governance
• Metagovernment - Project using the wiki consensus model as a replacement for current governments.
• On Conflict and Consensus - A Handbook on Formal Consensus Decisionmaking.

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Last updated on Saturday February 16, 2008 at 11:45:10 PST (GMT -0800)
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