Communitarian Consensus-Building

Author: Henry Tam

Democracy is about empowering people to make collective decisions as equal members. But does that translate in practice to nothing more than a majoritarian vote? Whenever more people choose X over Y or any other option, then X has to be the correct democratic choice?

Some people insist what has the largest backing must be adopted regardless of what others may think – except when they find themselves outvoted on something so important to them that they will steadfastly reject the result as unacceptable. Democracy cannot function if such clashes remove any sense of common endeavour, and leave us with ever greater fragmentation.

Although it may appear that there is no way out, there are in fact approaches that can bring people with different outlooks and attachments together to explore their common concerns and work out how to move forward beyond their initial differences. We can refer to these approaches generically as communitarian consensus-building, and they are designed to help people exchange views and formulate shared solutions under three key conditions:

Safeguarding mutual respect to enable participants to appreciate one another as fellow human beings.
Upholding a commitment to objectivity that embraces verifiable evidence and excludes groundless claims.
Maintaining a power balance to ensure no one can use any form of unfair advantage to secure backing for their position; and all can participate without fear.

Set out below are five types of communitarian consensus-building that have been proven to be highly effective, and should be utilised more widely to support the development of citizen democracy:

Deliberative Assessment

This usually takes the form of deliberative events such as participatory budgeting, deliberative polling, and citizens’ assembly, which, with the support of independent facilitators, enable people with diverse views to examine the evidence, question what is put forward, and exchange ideas before they come to an overall conclusion.

Common Ground Exploration

This involves bringing people together with very different background, customs, or assumptions, and encouraging them to talk in a civil manner to discover what interests and objectives they have in common. It has been used in connecting old and young, and newcomers and established residents (with food often the shared attraction); those with conflicting views on a planning proposal; and even Pro-Choice and Pro-Life supporters.

Participatory Decision-Making

This is done through passing decisions to a group that can, through having to routinely make choices together, learn the importance of empathy and the necessity of give-and-take. Devolving decisions to a neighbourhood, a residents association, users of a park, or the worker-members of a cooperative, exemplify the nurturing of this culture of everyday solidarity.

Structured Collaboration

This offers people with a wide range of attitudes and beliefs to be part of a joint initiative that opens their eyes to diverse perspectives and promotes the bond of collaboration. Examples can be found in the work of mutual aid groups, timebanking projects, community development, and community organising campaigns.

Reconciliatory Engagement

This opens the door to building trust when relationships have to varying degrees broken down. From restorative practices in dealing with school bullying, neighbour disputes, and offender rehabilitation, to truth and reconciliation work undertaken in South Africa, Northern Ireland, and Colombia, the key is to maintain a sustained focus on finding a way forward peacefully.

The more a society makes use of communitarian consensus-building to resolve differences and facilitate the development of shared commitments, the more it is ready to seek out democratic solutions which unite rather than polarise its citizens.

Notes:

Listed below are some of the people who have been influential in advancing the ideas and practices relating to each of the five approaches outlined above:

Deliberative Assessment: Amy Guttmann & Dennis Thompson, James Fishkin.
Common Ground Exploration: Benjamin Barber, Tony Gibson.
Participatory Decision-Making: John Stewart, Anne Phillips.
Structured Collaboration: Saul Alinsky, Elinor Ostrom, Edgar Khan.
Reconciliatory Engagement: Charles Pollard, Robert Joseph.

For more on the development of communitarian practices, see Tam, H. (2019) The Evolution of Communitarian Ideas, Palgrave Macmillan: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-26558-8

And, for a short clarification of communitarian thinking, see Communitarianism: don’t let it be misunderstood: https://henry-tam.blogspot.com/2024/05/communitarianism-dont-let-it-be.html