Origins Of Collective Decision Making

Andy Blunden is an editor of the journal Mind, Culture, and Activity and Secretary of the Marxists Internet Archive. His previous work includes, An Interdisciplinary Theory of Activity (2010), Concepts: A Critical Approach (2012) and Collaborative Projects: An Interdisciplinary Study (2014).

“In this engaging and accessibly-written study, Andy Blunden seeks to uncover the history of how people have arrived at decisions on a shared course of action to achieve common goals. Along the way, he provides interesting and sometimes surprising case studies of collectivity in various social and institutional formations, drawn from three continents and a range of cultural practices… [I]n the wake of the Brexit vote and the Trump presidential victory, and in the context of allegedly ‘post-truth politics’, this is a valuable and serious look at what it means to reach genuinely collective decisions.” —Steph Marston, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books“[In Origins of Collective Decision Making] Andy Blunden claims to be opening a new field, asking questions that have not been asked before…The dispute between supporters of Majority and Consensus is at bottom an ethical one, he argues, and the ethical problem has to be solved before practical solutions to the problem of decision making can be found, solutions in which both Majority and Consensus may have a place. This book, by illuminating the history, is intended as a resource for that purpose.”—Jeremy Dixon, Social Movement Studies"The result is a highly original, wide-ranging and continuously challenging dialogue between the sources and their implications."—Stuart Macintyre (University of Melbourne), in Labour History, no. 112 (May 2017)

• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSPREFACEINTRODUCTIONCollective Decision MakingRealist Historical InvestigationPART 1. MAJORITYThe British Trade Unions in 1824Anglo-Saxon EnglandThe GuildsThe Methodist ChurchLondon Corresponding SocietyThe ChartistsThe Communist Secret SocietiesThe General Workers UnionsThe End of Uncritical MajoritarianismPART 2. CONSENSUSEnglish Revolution and the QuakersThe Quakers in Twentieth Century PennsylvaniaNew England Town MeetingsThe Peace and Civil Rights MovementsMyles Horton and the HighlanderThe African and Slave Roots of the Black Baptist ChurchesEleanor Garst and Women Strike for PeaceThe Quakers and Movement for a New SocietyAnarchism and Decision MakingPART 3. THE POST WORLD WAR SETTLEMENTThe Negation of Social MovementsThe Negation of Negation ? the rise of alliance politicsAlliance politicsCONCLUSIONREFERENCESINDEX