[pp.int.general] Pirates and the 5 Star Movement

[Zbigniew Łukasiak]

On Sat, Mar 2, 2013 at 11:26 AM, Rick Falkvinge (Piratpartiet)
<rick.falkvinge at piratpartiet.se> wrote:
...
> Personally, I find internal democracy to be one tool among many to
> resolve conflicts. It is not one of the better ones when it comes to
> safeguarding diversity, trust, and speed. Consensus or meritocratic
> resolutions of conflicts are preferable in most cases, in my opinion.

But consensus is certainly very democratic - so if internal democracy
is one tool then consensus conflict resolution is a part of it - so I
guess the other tools that you have in mind is meritocracy.  I am not
sure about that one - I have not yet seen any political party with for
example formal exams for official positions (like the Chinese system
of bureaucrats writing essays).

>
> Voting is a tool to allow a group to move forward in a conflict
> scenario, but it is important to remember that the process of voting
> creates losers by definition, and is therefore psychologically costly
> in an activist organization if alternative resolution conflict
> mechanisms are available.

Agreed - but voting is just one tool in democracy - I would say it is
the tool of last resort, when no consensus can be reached.

--
Zbigniew