 | 6.8. Legal issues | |
|---|---|---|
| ↢ | Chapter 6. Implementing Sociocracy | ↣ |
Some people rule out sociocracy for legal reasons, for example because their legal form seems to determine what options they have in how they are governed. For example, individual schools in the United States public school system are limited in their capacity to choose self-governance. For non-profits, sometimes the funding sources limit how they govern themselves. We urge groups not to give up too fast. Most organizations have more leeway than they think, and there are a number of workarounds.
Since the legal side of organizations depends on the type of organization and your location. We will only give a few examples. Below are some examples of stumbling blocks with very easy solutions:
For example, we sometimes hear “but we’re legally required to have a vote”. Consider that consent is everyone saying they are willing to go with a proposal. We are therefore simply increasing the majority rule from 51% to 100%. There is no legal issue there.
The requirement to have board decisions can be dealt with the general circle forming the official board, confirming decisions made in circles.
Any legal body like a board that only represents a part of the organization can be integrated into a circle structure. For example, a Condominium Homeowner Association Board (HOA) legally only represents the people whose names are on the property deeds. But a community is larger than a set of homeowners. A community might include many people whose names are not on the deed -- renters, lovers, relatives. If we want equivalence in a community, the organizational structure needs to be inclusive. We have seen and supported implementations in cohousing and other intentional communities where the HOA Board was a sub-circle of a department circle. If we look at it that way, the domain of an HOA is just a small piece of the decisions that need to be made in a community. Be creative!