1.9 Community Governance Structure

The way decisions get made, and conflicts get resolved. _or_ Death by 1000 Bureaucrats

Philosophy

The advantage of bureaucracy is its ability to consolidate and allocate the resources of the body it oversees; its strength measured by its effectiveness at coordinating large numbers of people into an effective body capable of unilateral action. The most pollyanna interpretation of this maintains that we each sacrifice a bit of personal agency to be part of a much stronger collective.

The weakness of bureaucracy is that it's filled with bureaucrats; a special class of person, operating in a wholly different context and with different incentives than those they oversee (represent, manage, administer to... take your pick of corporate friendly terminology here). This disconnection from boots-on-the-ground reality only increases the further up the ladder one goes.

We forgo prescriptive and legislative decrees in favor of consensus seeking mechanisms that are self-regulating and responsive. -With an aim to harness the coordinative capacity of bureaucracy without the need for bureaucrats.

Examples

Brenda wants to create a viticulture subguild from her horticulture guild

Todd sees a troubling post and reports it as an ethical dilemma

Evan thinks his diesel mechanic guild should expand its charter to include gasoline engines.

Form and Function