Collective Decision Making Quotes

'Democratic' in its original meaning refers to unlimited majority rule....a social system in which one's work, one's property, one's mind, and one's life are at the mercy of any gang that may muster the vote of a majority at any moment for any purpose

A democrat need not believe that the majority will always reach a wise decision. He should however believe in the necessity of accepting the decision of the majority, be it wise or unwise, until such a time that the majority reaches another decision.

Mass democracy guarantees stupidity. Masses of people, even if they're individually intelligent, can only act stupidly.

I know of no better or safer human tribunal than the people.

Economic development must ... not be left to the sole judgment of a few men or groups, possessing excessive economic power, or of the political community alone, or of certain powerful nations

The blind lead the blind. It's the democratic way.

Anarchism is democracy taken seriously.

Every man, and every body of men on earth, possesses the right of self-government. They receive it with their being from the hand of nature. Individuals exercise it by their single will; collections of men by that of their majority; for the law of the majority is the natural law of every society of men.

Democracy on a supranational level is simply impossible. In order to have democracy, there needs to be a nation.

Everything, everywhere, shall be decided by majority vote.

England is one if the great powers of the world, but this has not been brought about by Queen Victoria’s absolute rule. She had able men of Parliament back of her at all times and of course the discussed everything until the best result was obtained ... In China, I have 400 million people, all dependent on my judgement.

Government of the people by the people and for the people cannot be conducted at the bidding of one man, however great he may be.

To me consensus seems to be - the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies in search of something in which no-one believes, but to which no-one objects - the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner "I stand for consensus"?

In matters which concern the common good, a general council chosen by all, to transact business which concern all, I conceive most suitable to rule and most safe for relief of the whole

Democracy is not brute numbers; it is a genuine union of true individuals...the essence of democracy is creating. The technique of democracy is group organization.

Most discussions of decision making assume that only senior executives make decisions or that only senior executives' decisions matter. This is a dangerous mistake.

Democracy, at its best, enables citizens to debate collectively how the slices of the pie should be divided and to determine which rules apply to private goods and which to public goods.

When everybody in a group is susceptible to similar biases, groups are inferior to individuals, because groups tend to be more extreme than individuals.

The voice of the people may be said to be God's voice, the voice of the Panchayat.

The vision I see is not only a movement of direct democracy, of self- and co-determination and non-violence, but a movement in which politics means the power to love and the power to feel united on the spaceship Earth.

Democracy is not simply a political system; it is a moral movement and it springs from adventurous faith in human possibilities.

Bottom up democracy is hard for our leaders to accept. It is cultural. Chinese culture is based on the family. The daddy makes all the big decisions for everyone. It is top down.

Collective will supplants individual whim

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what President Trump represents in American politics. But, if nothing else, he represents a way for tens of millions of people who were desperate for change to just turn the table over and say, we want to start over again. But it is a challenge for our democracy. It definitely is. But, again, the remedy has to be devoting enough attention to restoring the way we make collective decisions in this country.

I am for the people of the whole nation doing just as they please in all matters which concern the whole nation; for that of each part doing just as they choose in all matters which concern no other part; and for each individual doing just as he chooses in all matters which concern nobody else.