The Care and Feeding of Intentional Communities

Diana Leafe Christian has worked with intentional communities and has come to understand some of the most effective ways to sustain them. One of the governance systems she is familiar with is called sociocracy. It values equality, collaboration, and the rights of people to decide the conditions under which they live and work. Its principles and practices are very different from parliamentary procedure and majority rule. Majority rule may need only 51% of votes to pass a measure and this can lead to a divided society, promoting competition and dominance instead of cooperation and equality. Sociocracy goes a step beyond even consensus-governing practices.