Clean Decisions

The idea of a sociocracy can be traced back to the early nineteenth century when the French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798-1857) advocated a society based on a balance of scientific method and humanism.

In 1926, Kees Boeke (1884-1966), a Dutch peace-activist and educator, began developing a set of principles for sociocracy based on three fundamental rules:

1. First, the interests of all members must be considered, the individual bowing to the interests of the whole.
2. Second, no action can be taken if there are no solutions found that everyone can accept.
3. Third, all members must be ready to act according to these unanimous decisions.

Kees Boeke founded a school in the Netherlands as a laboratory for the development of Sociocracy, rejecting majority rule in favor of full inclusiveness.

In the 1970s, these fundamental rules were refined and expanded by Gerard Endenburg, one of Boeke's students. Endenburg went on to become general manager of his parent’s company, Endenberg Electrotechniek, and there spent much time establishing the governing principles of Sociocracy.

Much of the original material was written in Dutch, and not readily available. John Buck and Sharon Villines have now published “We The People” an excellent book that brings the information to English readers. They describe the governing principles of Sociocracy as follows:

1. Decision-Making by Consent: Consent governs decision-making. Consent means there are no argued and paramount objections to a proposed policy decision.
2. Circle Organization: A circle is a semi-autonomous and self-organizing unit that has its own aim. It makes policy decisions within its domain; delegates the leading, doing, and measuring functions to its own members; maintains its own memory system; and plans its own development.
3. Double-Linking: The connection between two circles is a double-link formed by the operational leader and one or more representatives who participate fully in the decision-making of the next higher circle.
4. Elections: Circles elect people to functions and tasks by consent after open discussion

1. Decision Making by Consent: Consent is a method of decision-making whereby the arguments presented in discussing a decision are of paramount importance, and the result of the discussion is that no one present knows of a paramount reason to continue discussion before proceeding with the proposed decision. Note: this is consent, not consensus.
2. Circle Organization: The organization is built of a hierarchy of semi-autonomous circles. Each circle has its own aim, given by the higher-level circle, and has the authority and responsibility to execute, measure, and control its own processes to move towards its aim.
3. Double-Linking: A lower circle is always linked to the circle above it via at least two people who belong to and take part in the decision making of both the higher circle and the lower circle. One of these links is the person with overall accountability for the lower-level circle's results, and the other is a representative elected from within the lower-level circle.
4. Elections by Consent: People are elected to key roles exclusively by consent after open discussion (this is not a democratic majority-vote election!). Most notably, the election process applies to the representative elected from a lower-level circle to a higher-level circle.