The #5 Reason to Live Together
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Because it’s a better form of democracy
Intentional communities aspire to being egalitarian, inclusive and participatory. And more often than not, the aspirations become reality.
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Intentional communities embrace governance and decision-making processes that are either based on basic consensus or a more refined form of it, such as Holocracy (each group/committee has the authority to self-organize internally to best achieve its goals), Sociocracy ( the use of consent, rather than majority voting, in discussion and decision-making by people who have a shared objective) or Social Permaculture (method of social relating and community building that draws inspiration from the intelligence and cycles of the natural environment).
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Communities set great emphasis on self-management - usually through delegated groups and decentralized decision-making, although the ultimate back stop to all of this is often the community-wide forum.
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The price you pay for this high level of participation and involvement might well be countless and endless meetings but the benefit is that you have the possibility and indeed the right to have your say on all the issues that directly affect your everyday life. Where else can you find such a direct form of democracy at work on an everyday basis?