Consensus

Flowchart of basic consensus decision-making process.

Consensus is a term which describes general agreement among members of a group or community. It also means the theory and process of bringing a group together in agreement.

Not majority rule

The cooperative spirit of consensus is different from the competitive spirit which is brought to a point in majority voting. According to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales,

We are really strongly focused on consensus. One criticism of Wikipedia is that the majority rules. But majority is not the right way to describe it. We strive for consensus rather than majority rule. If you are in a group of five or ten people working on an article, if 30 percent of those working on the article dissent, then continue to write the article until all but the most unreasonable agree. Those who continue to disagree are typically exhibiting non-collaborative, and sometimes abusive, behavior.

Related pages

• Common sense
• Discussion
• Intensity of preference
• Majority rule

Other websites

• "Basics of Consensus" at Northwest Intentional Communities Association (NICA) Archived 2013-01-10 at the Wayback Machine