Group Structures

1. Hierarchical

• Officers: President or Executive Director, VP(s), Treasurer, Secretary, etc.
• Decision-making: top-down; President has executive authority; meetings run on Robert's Rules, etc.
• Examples: student government, League of Women Voters, NAACP, academic departments, some unions.

2. Committee-based

• Officers: Some, possibly including President, VP, etc., Field Organizers, committee chairs, etc. Coordinating or Steering Committee, other standing and ad-hoc committees as needed.
• Decision-making: both top-down and bottom-up; many checks and balances; official meetings often run on RobertŐs Rules; smaller ones may run more loosely or by consensus.
• Examples: SNCC, SDS, USAS, a few unions.

3. Anarchist

• Officers: none.
• Decision-making: Consensus, possibly including spokescouncils, rotating facilitation, fishbowls, vibes-watchers, break-outs, etc.--"all aimed at creating forms of democratic process that allow initiatives to rise from below and attain maximum effective solidarity without stifling dissenting voices, creating leadership positions or compelling people to do anything to which they have not freely consented."
• Examples: Direct Action Network (DAN), 180/MDE, Reclaim the Streets, (to some extent) the Zapatistas.

Varied Thoughts on the Importance
of Working with Other People

We maintain that the principles of constitutional republicanism are universal, and applicable to allnations, although not well understood or upheld by most. We also examine the related principles of federalism and nomocracy, the rule of law, and show how those principles are applicable to solving the fundamental problem of avoiding excessive or unbalanced concentrations of power.
--The Constitution Society, 1995

The object of Rules of Order is to assist an assembly to accomplish in the best possible manner the work for which it was designed. To do this it is necessary to restrain the individual somewhat, as the right of an individual, in any community, to do what he pleases, is incompatible with the interests of the whole. Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty. Experience has shown the importance of definiteness in the law; and in this country, where customs are so slightly established and the published manuals of parliamentary practice so conflicting, no society should attempt to conduct business without having adopted some work upon the subject as the authority .
--General Henry M. Robert, 1915

A second basic fact that characterizes nonviolence is that it does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding. The nonviolent resister must often express his protest through noncooperation or boycotts, but he realizes that these are not ends in themselves; they are merely means to awaken a sense of moral shame in the opponent. The end is redemption and reconciliation. The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, while the aftermath of violence is tragic bitterness.
--Martin Luther King Jr., 1960

Consensus process--in which one of the basic rules is that one always treats others' arguments as fundamentally reasonable and principled, whatever one thinks about the person making it--in particular creates an extremely different style of debate and argument than the sort encouraged by majority voting, one in which the incentives are all towards compromise and creative synthesis rather than polarization, reduction and treating minor points of difference like philosophical ruptures.
--David Graeber, 11 November 2001

by Laura Crossett, 1998-2008