so this leaves this proposed council with a responsibility to mediate policy disputes and the authority to decide a deadlock in favor of a strong majority based on strength of arguement and core values (openness transparency etc) - this would basically end up being a fairly weak system especially if the council members had their own veto in council decisions and the community kept a power of referendum to undo any council mistakes. The only danger i see is some people will no longer be assured of the ability to derail consensus in favor of status quo. Whether or not we want to give them authority to close debate is well debatable but even with that we wouldnt be creating another jimbo but rather an extension of the existing community governance. As for secret ballots we already elect a much more powerful and perhaps more dangerous body by secret election and those are the community reps to the board so i think it is a viable and proven system.
On 2/2/11, Fred Bauder fredbaud@fairpoint.net wrote:
i see the role of an elected leadership as a supplement to the consensus process not a replacement. Basically they should usually be there to advise us but when deadlocks happen they would have the authority to decide whether or not a minority arguement is strong enough to block consensus - in any event a majority is always going to be the minimum to go forward with any change and a minority will still be able to block a short sighted change - at least long enough that they can be heard out and usually much longer. The difference is that the minority would no longer have what amounts to a guaranteed veto over any change - they would have to convince the community and/or the council why sometimig should be blocked. That gives a small minority the voice needed to steer us away from huge mistakes and to amend proposals through discussion and compromise but the days of a small cabal being able to hold the status quo without reasoned argument would be over. Consensus still wins.
Yes, blocking, by an small group, or even an individual (in other contexts) is fine IF they have a good argument, especially if it is obvious others in the discussion don't understand that argument yet. It should not result in sterile deadlocks though.
I continue to support that kind of council as a promising idea.
Fred
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l