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Sun 19 Dec, 2010 06:38 pm
I'm generally familiar with the various forms of governance, including general agreement that the U.S. is a federal republic. There are of course a number of other types of government, including parlimentary constitutional monarchy, absolute monarchy, presidential republic, etc.
I belong to a professional organization which is ostensibly governed by a Board of Directors, which are elected annually by the collective vote of the association membership. There is also an association president who is charged with the general day-to-day operations of the association's business.
A subset of the Board of Directors forms the governance committee, who, among other responsibilities, are charged with identifying a slate of proposed nominees for the next term of the Board of Directors, and which are then offered via online ballot to the association membership for confirmation. Write-in candidates are allowed, although since the association membership list is "closed", no write-in candidate has ever mounted anything approaching a serious challenge. Consequently, the offered slate of Board candidates are all virtually guaranteed election by the membership.
I'm somewhat unclear exactly what criteria drives the actions and selections of the governance committee, although I will say that the annual Board of Director nominees are usually a different group of nominees from year-to-year, and all appear qualified to serve on the Board. So, given that description of our general governance model and the manner in which the association representatives are selected, does anyone care to offer an opinion of what form of governance our association is practicing?
@joefromchicago,
Okay, while funny and probably at least partially (or maybe totally) accurate - I was hoping for an answer that was a little more expansive. I'll offer that this form of governance appears to be more in the way of a form of representative democracy, since the membership does cast their popular votes to select its board representatives from a slate of candidates. The more slippery part, is that where the annual slate of candidates are hand-picked in advance by the current cycle board members who comprise the governance committee. So, rather than individuals offering themselves for consideration for elective office, the candidates seem to be "pre-selected" and their eventual election is virtually assured.
So, this may be a hybrid representative democracy, but the selection of the slate of representatives isn't what I would say was purely democratic - although I feel certain there's a hybrid word combination "hiding" out there that will describe what this form of governance really is. Takers?
@CDobyns,
It seems party politics. The Board of Directors are for show but the governance committee is the real power.
@talk72000,
Hmm, okay - so does this make this a democratic autocracy or perhaps an totalitarian democracy? Hey, maybe it's a democratic
logocracy? I think there's more discussion ground to furrow on this one, since I think this is a pretty common form of governance among associations.
@CDobyns,
It's unusual to think of a private organization's form of governance in political terms. If your organization were running a country rather than a private group, though, I'd call it a modified form of aristocracy or oligarchy rather than a modified form of representative democracy. After all, when the rulers, in effect, choose the rulers, that's not democracy, even if the system has some of the trappings of democracy. Actually, what you describe is similar to the system in place in Iran, where candidates for parliament are vetted by a council of clerics, who have the authority to reject any candidate who is not acceptable.
Oligarchy is what i was thinking as well--and it is reminiscent of the Roman republic, in which Senators were the representatives of their gens, while candidates for entrance into the order of Patres were selected by the Censor, himself a member of that order. The point about this being a corporate affair, and not a polity is well taken.
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