The origins of collective decision making / / by Andy Blunden.

• Author: Blunden, Andy.
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, [2016]
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Critical Social Sciences 84.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (269 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

In The Origins of Collective Decision Making , Andy Blunden identifies three paradigms of collective decision making – Counsel, Majority and Consensus, discovers their origins in traditional, medieval and modern times, and traces their evolution over centuries up to the present. The study reveals that these three paradigms have an ethical foundation, deeply rooted in historical experiences. The narrative takes the reader into the very moments when individual leaders and organisers made the crucial developments in white heat of critical moments in history, such as the English Revolution of the 1640s, the Chartist Movement of the 1840s and the early Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. This history provides a valuable resource for resolving current social movement conflict over decision making.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Collective Decision Making -- Realist Historical Investigation -- The British Trade Unions in 1824 -- Anglo-Saxon England -- The Guilds -- The Methodist Church -- London Corresponding Society -- The Chartists -- The Communist Secret Societies -- The General Workers Unions -- The End of Uncritical Majoritarianism -- English Revolution and the Quakers -- The Quakers in Twentieth Century Pennsylvania -- New England Town Meetings -- The Peace and Civil Rights Movements -- Myles Horton and the Highlander -- The African and Slave Roots of the Black Baptist Churches -- Eleanor Garst and Women Strike for Peace -- The Quakers and Movement for a New Society -- Anarchism and Decision Making -- The Negation of Social Movements -- The Negation of Negation – The Rise of Alliance Politics -- Alliance Politics -- Conclusion -- References -- Index.