Sociocracy

Sociocracy is a theory of governance that seeks to create psychologically safe environments and productive organizations. It draws on the use of consent, rather than majority voting, in discussion and decision-making by people who have a shared goal or work process. The Sociocratic Circle-Organization Method was developed by the Dutch electrical engineer and entrepreneur Gerard Endenburg and is inspired by the work of activists and educators Betty Cadbury and Kees Boeke, to which Endenburg was exposed at a young age while studying at a school led by Boeke. Sociocracy has informed and inspired similar organizational forms and methods, including Holacracy and the self-organizing team approach developed by Buurtzorg. The word 'sociocracy' is derived from the Latin socius meaning companions, colleagues, or associates; and cratia which refers to the ruling class, as in aristocracy, plutocracy, democracy, and meritocracy. It was coined in 1851 by French philosopher Auguste Comte, as a parallel to sociology, the science that studies how people organize themselves into social systems. Comte believed that a government led by sociologists would use scientific methods to meet the needs of all the people, not just the ruling class. American sociologist Lester Frank Ward in an 1881 paper for the Penn Monthly was an active advocate of a sociocracy to replace the political competition created by majority vote. Ward expanded his concept of sociocracy in Dynamic Sociology (1883) and The Psychic Factors of Civilization (1892). Ward believed that a well educated public was essential for effective government, and foresaw a time when the emotional and partisan nature of contemporary politics would yield to a more effective, dispassionate, and scientific discussion of issues and problems. Democracy would thus eventually evolve into a more advanced form of government, sociocracy. The Dutch pacifist, educator, and peace worker Kees Boeke and his wife, English peace activist Beatrice Boeke-Cadbury, updated and expanded Ward's ideas by implementing the first sociocratic organizational structure in a school in Bilthoven, Netherlands they co-founded in 1926.