The Origins of Collective Decision Making

Building on his highly original and always insightful earlier works on collective activity, in Origins of Collective Decision Making Andy Blunden turns his attention to the question of how groups make decisions. Examining three paradigms—Counsel, Majority, and Consensus based methods—Blunden discovers that each has unique ethical foundations, deeply rooted in the historical experiences of specific struggles.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PREFACE

INTRODUCTION
Collective Decision Making
Realist Historical Investigation

PART 1. MAJORITY
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

PART 2. CONSENSUS
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

PART 3. THE POST WORLD WAR SETTLEMENT
The Negation of Social Movements
The Negation of Negation ? the rise of alliance politics
Alliance politics

CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
INDEX