60-516: The Pteranodontidae are a family of large pterosaurs from the Late Cretaceous of North America and possibly other continents including Europe and Africa . The family was named in 1876 by Othniel Charles Marsh . Pteranodontids had a distinctive, elongated crest jutting from the rear of the head (most famously seen in Pteranodon itself). The spectacularly-crested Nyctosaurus
120-527: A consensus was reached"). Consensus decision-making, as a self-described practice, originates from several nonviolent , direct action groups that were active in the Civil rights , Peace and Women's movements in the USA during counterculture of the 1960s . The practice gained popularity in the 1970s through the anti-nuclear movement, and peaked in popularity in the early 1980s. Consensus spread abroad through
180-404: A decision rule . Diversity of opinion is normal in most all situations, and will be represented proportionately in an appropriately functioning group. Even with goodwill and social awareness, citizens are likely to disagree in their political opinions and judgments. Differences of interest as well as of perception and values will lead the citizens to divergent views about how to direct and use
240-633: A ghost lineage dating much earlier in the Cretaceous. Volgadraco , previously assumed to be an azhdarchid, has also since been relocated to pteranodontidae. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Family (biology) Family ( Latin : familia , pl. : familiae ) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy . It is classified between order and genus . A family may be divided into subfamilies , which are intermediate ranks between
300-424: A group decision-making process in which participants develop and decide on proposals with the goal of achieving broad acceptance, defined by its terms as form of consensus . The focus on establishing agreement of at least the majority or the supermajority and avoiding unproductive opinion differentiates consensus from unanimity , which requires all participants to support a decision. Consensus decision-making in
360-479: A musyawarah consensus-building process in which parties mediate to find peace and avoid future hostility and revenge. The resulting agreements are expected to be followed, and range from advice and warnings to compensation and exile. The origins of formal consensus -making can be traced significantly further back, to the Religious Society of Friends , or Quakers, who adopted the technique as early as
420-417: A systemic bias , a rigged process (where an agenda is not published in advance or changed when it becomes clear who is present to consent), fear of speaking one's mind, a lack of creativity (to suggest alternatives) or even a lack of courage (to go further along the same road to a more extreme solution that would not achieve unanimous consent). Unanimity is achieved when the full group apparently consents to
480-542: A 75% supermajority to finalize its decisions, potentially as early as 1142. In the Xulu and Xhosa (South African) process of indaba , community leaders gather to listen to the public and negotiate figurative thresholds towards an acceptable compromise. The technique was also used during the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference . In Aceh and Nias cultures (Indonesian), family and regional disputes, from playground fights to estate inheritance, are handled through
540-622: A Japanese company, they had to discuss the idea with everyone even the janitor, yet once a decision was made the Americans found the Japanese were able to act much quicker because everyone was on board, while the Americans had to struggle with internal opposition. Outside of Western culture, multiple other cultures have used consensus decision-making. One early example is the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy Grand Council , which used
600-457: A consensus over time. The naming of families is codified by various international bodies using the following suffixes: The taxonomic term familia was first used by French botanist Pierre Magnol in his Prodromus historiae generalis plantarum, in quo familiae plantarum per tabulas disponuntur (1689) where he called the seventy-six groups of plants he recognised in his tables families ( familiae ). The concept of rank at that time
660-539: A decision. It has disadvantages insofar as further disagreement, improvements or better ideas then remain hidden, but effectively ends the debate moving it to an implementation phase. Some consider all unanimity a form of groupthink, and some experts propose "coding systems ... for detecting the illusion of unanimity symptom". In Consensus is not Unanimity , long-time progressive change activist Randy Schutt writes: Many people think of consensus as simply an extended voting method in which everyone must cast their votes
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#1732773083758720-445: A democracy is consensus democracy . The word consensus is Latin meaning "agreement, accord", derived from consentire meaning "feel together". A noun, consensus can represent a generally accepted opinion – "general agreement or concord; harmony", "a majority of opinion" – or the outcome of a consensus decision-making process. This article refers to the process and the outcome (e.g. "to decide by consensus" and "
780-414: A distinct genus, Geosternbergia . Kellner re-defined Pteranodontidae as the most recent common ancestor of Pteranodon longiceps , Geosternbergia sternbergi and Dawndraco kanzai , and all of its descendants. This definition is now contentious, however, as the validity of Dawndraco has been disputed and the utility of separating Geosternbergia from Pteranodon questioned. This clade possibly includes
840-492: A diversity of thought. The facilitator is understood as serving the group rather than acting as person-in-charge. In the Quaker model, as with other consensus decision-making processes, articulating the emerging consensus allows members to be clear on the decision in front of them. As members' views are taken into account they are likely to support it. The consensus decision-making process often has several roles designed to make
900-446: A fall-back method to strategically incentivize consensus over blocking. However, this makes it very difficult to tell the difference between those who support the decision and those who merely tactically tolerate it for the incentive. Once they receive that incentive, they may undermine or refuse to implement the agreement in various and non-obvious ways. In general voting systems avoid allowing offering incentives (or "bribes") to change
960-446: A family, yet in the realm of plants, these classifications often rely on both the vegetative and reproductive characteristics of plant species. Taxonomists frequently hold varying perspectives on these descriptions, leading to a lack of widespread consensus within the scientific community for extended periods. The continual publication of new data and diverse opinions plays a crucial role in facilitating adjustments and ultimately reaching
1020-526: A heartfelt vote. In the Abilene paradox , a group can unanimously agree on a course of action that no individual member of the group desires because no one individual is willing to go against the perceived will of the decision-making body. Since consensus decision-making focuses on discussion and seeks the input of all participants, it can be a time-consuming process. This is a potential liability in situations where decisions must be made speedily, or where it
1080-791: A matter and reformulating it until no objections remained". This way of working was brought to the SNCC at its formation by the Nashville student group , who had received nonviolence training from James Lawson and Myles Horton at the Highlander Folk School . However, as the SNCC faced growing internal and external pressure toward the mid-1960s, it developed into a more hierarchical structure, eventually abandoning consensus. Women Strike for Peace (WSP) are also accounted as independently used consensus from their founding in 1961. Eleanor Garst (herself influenced by Quakers) introduced
1140-399: A mechanical method for verifying such consensus, apparently in the belief that any such codification leads to attempts to " game the system ." Instead, a working group (WG) chair or BoF chair is supposed to articulate the "sense of the group." One tradition in support of rough consensus is the tradition of humming rather than (countable) hand-raising; this allows a group to quickly discern
1200-471: A mechanism for dealing with disagreements. The Quaker model has been adapted by Earlham College for application to secular settings, and can be effectively applied in any consensus decision-making process. Its process includes: Key components of Quaker-based consensus include a belief in a common humanity and the ability to decide together. The goal is "unity, not unanimity." Ensuring that group members speak only once until others are heard encourages
1260-424: A symbol of strength. In his book about Misplaced Pages, Joseph Reagle considers the merits and challenges of consensus in open and online communities. Randy Schutt, Starhawk and other practitioners of direct action focus on the hazards of apparent agreement followed by action in which group splits become dangerously obvious. Unanimous, or apparently unanimous, decisions can have drawbacks. They may be symptoms of
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#17327730837581320-465: A way that assures that "everyone must be heard". The Modified Borda Count voting method has been advocated as more 'consensual' than majority voting, by, among others, by Ramón Llull in 1199, by Nicholas Cusanus in 1435, by Jean-Charles de Borda in 1784, by Hother Hage in 1860, by Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) in 1884, and by Peter Emerson in 1986. Japanese companies normally use consensus decision-making, meaning that unanimous support on
1380-425: Is a guide book used by many organizations. This book on Parliamentary Procedure allows the structuring of debate and passage of proposals that can be approved through a form of majority vote. It does not emphasize the goal of full agreement. Critics of such a process believe that it can involve adversarial debate and the formation of competing factions. These dynamics may harm group member relationships and undermine
1440-406: Is done, this coercive process is not consensus. Confusion between unanimity and consensus, in other words, usually causes consensus decision-making to fail, and the group then either reverts to majority or supermajority rule or disbands. Most robust models of consensus exclude uniformly unanimous decisions and require at least documentation of minority concerns. Some state clearly that unanimity
1500-429: Is not consensus but rather evidence of intimidation, lack of imagination, lack of courage, failure to include all voices, or deliberate exclusion of the contrary views. Some proponents of consensus decision-making view procedures that use majority rule as undesirable for several reasons. Majority voting is regarded as competitive , rather than cooperative , framing decision-making in a win/lose dichotomy that ignores
1560-438: Is not possible to canvass opinions of all delegates in a reasonable time. Additionally, the time commitment required to engage in the consensus decision-making process can sometimes act as a barrier to participation for individuals unable or unwilling to make the commitment. However, once a decision has been reached it can be acted on more quickly than a decision handed down. American businessmen complained that in negotiations with
1620-744: Is sometimes included in this family, though usually placed in its own family, the Nyctosauridae (Nicholson & Lydekker, 1889). Modern researchers differ in their use of the concept. S. Christopher Bennett and Alexander Kellner have concluded that Nyctosaurus was not a pteranodontid. In 1994 Bennett defined a clade Pteranodontidae, also including species of the Ornithocheiromorpha . However, this definition has not been accepted by other workers. Alexander Kellner, for example, named several additional species for specimens previously classified as Pteranodon , and placed P. sternbergi in
1680-690: Is still observed that defies factional explanations. Nearly 40% of the decisions of the United States Supreme Court , for example, are unanimous, though often for widely varying reasons. "Consensus in Supreme Court voting, particularly the extreme consensus of unanimity, has often puzzled Court observers who adhere to ideological accounts of judicial decision making." Historical evidence is mixed on whether particular Justices' views were suppressed in favour of public unity. Heitzig and Simmons (2012) suggest using random selection as
1740-466: The Genera Plantarum of George Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker this word ordo was used for what now is given the rank of family. Families serve as valuable units for evolutionary, paleontological, and genetic studies due to their relatively greater stability compared to lower taxonomic levels like genera and species. Consensus decision-making Consensus is built by
1800-473: The A16 Washington D.C. protests in 2000 , affinity groups disputed their spokescouncil's imposition of nonviolence in their action guidelines. They received the reprieve of letting groups self-organize their protests, and as the city's protest was subsequently divided into pie slices, each blockaded by an affinity group's choice of protest. Many of the participants learned about the spokescouncil model on
1860-536: The S11 (World Economic Forum protest) in 2000 to do so too. Consensus was used at the first Camp for Climate Action (2006) and subsequent camps. Occupy Wall Street (2011) made use of consensus in combination with techniques such as the people's microphone and hand signals . Characteristics of consensus decision-making include: Consensus decision-making is an alternative to commonly practiced group decision-making processes. Robert's Rules of Order , for instance,
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1920-581: The Vietnam War , Lawrence Scott started A Quaker Action Group (AQAG) in 1966 to try and encourage activism within the Quakers. By 1971 AQAG members felt they needed not only to end the war, but transform civil society as a whole, and renamed AQAG to MNS. MNS members used consensus decision-making from the beginning as a non-religious adaptation of the Quaker decision-making they were used to. MNS trained
1980-405: The anti-globalization and climate movements, and has become normalized in anti-authoritarian spheres in conjunction with affinity groups and ideas of participatory democracy and prefigurative politics . The Movement for a New Society (MNS) has been credited for popularizing consensus decision-making. Unhappy with the inactivity of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) against
2040-558: The nyctosaurids . Analyses by David Unwin did indicate a close relationship between Pteranodon and Nyctosaurus , and he used the name Pteranodontia for the clade containing both. Pteranodontids are primarily known from the Coniacian to Campanian stages of the Cretaceous in North America and Japan . However, potential Maastrichtian remains have been identified from several other locations, being actually rather common in
2100-428: The spokescouncil model, affinity groups make joint decisions by each designating a speaker and sitting behind that circle of spokespeople, akin to the spokes of a wheel. While speaking rights might be limited to each group's designee, the meeting may allot breakout time for the constituent groups to discuss an issue and return to the circle via their spokesperson. In the case of an activist spokescouncil preparing for
2160-616: The 17th century. Anabaptists , including some Mennonites , have a history of using consensus decision-making and some believe Anabaptists practiced consensus as early as the Martyrs' Synod of 1527. Some Christians trace consensus decision-making back to the Bible. The Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia references, in particular, Acts 15 as an example of consensus in the New Testament. The lack of legitimate consensus process in
2220-650: The Maastrichtian of the Tethys Sea . Beginning in 2016, Nicholas Longrich, David Martill, and Brian Andres presented evidence of several nyctosaurid and pteranodontid species from the latest Maastrichtian age of north Africa, suggesting that both lineages went through an evolutionary radiation in the Tethys region shortly before the K–Pg extinction event . Additionally, later phylogenetic studies imply that they represent
2280-408: The ability of a group to cooperatively implement a contentious decision. Consensus decision-making attempts to address the beliefs of such problems. Proponents claim that outcomes of the consensus process include: Consensus is not synonymous with unanimity – though that may be a rule agreed to in a specific decision-making process. The level of agreement necessary to finalize a decision is known as
2340-612: The anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance (1976) and Abalone Alliance (1977) to use consensus, and in 1977 published Resource Manual for a Living Revolution , which included a section on consensus. An earlier account of consensus decision-making comes from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the main student organization of the civil rights movement , founded in 1960. Early SNCC member Mary King , later reflected: "we tried to make all decisions by consensus ... it meant discussing
2400-490: The board of directors is sought for any decision. A ringi-sho is a circulation document used to obtain agreement. It must first be signed by the lowest level manager, and then upwards, and may need to be revised and the process started over. In the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), decisions are assumed to be taken by rough consensus . The IETF has studiously refrained from defining
2460-514: The book's morphological section, where he delved into discussions regarding the vegetative and generative aspects of plants. Subsequently, in French botanical publications, from Michel Adanson 's Familles naturelles des plantes (1763) and until the end of the 19th century, the word famille was used as a French equivalent of the Latin ordo (or ordo naturalis ). In zoology ,
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2520-462: The debate. When all agree, the chair calls for a preferential vote, as per the rules for a Modified Borda Count. The referees decide which option, or which composite of the two leading options, is the outcome. If its level of support surpasses a minimum consensus coefficient, it may be adopted. Groups that require unanimity commonly use a core set of procedures depicted in this flow chart. Once an agenda for discussion has been set and, optionally,
2580-508: The decision. Members of a minority position may feel less commitment to a majority decision, and even majority voters who may have taken their positions along party or bloc lines may have a sense of reduced responsibility for the ultimate decision. The result of this reduced commitment, according to many consensus proponents, is potentially less willingness to defend or act upon the decision. Majority voting cannot measure consensus. Indeed,—so many 'for' and so many 'against'—it measures
2640-521: The facilitator calling for proposals. Every proposed option is accepted if the referees decide it is relevant and conforms with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . The referees produce and display a list of these options. The debate proceeds, with queries, comments, criticisms and/or even new options. If the debate fails to come to a verbal consensus, the referees draw up a final list of options - usually between 4 and 6 - to represent
2700-540: The family as a rank intermediate between order and genus was introduced by Pierre André Latreille in his Précis des caractères génériques des insectes, disposés dans un ordre naturel (1796). He used families (some of them were not named) in some but not in all his orders of "insects" (which then included all arthropods ). In nineteenth-century works such as the Prodromus of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle and
2760-478: The fly by participating in it directly, and came to better understand their planned action by hearing others' concerns and voicing their own. In Designing an All-Inclusive Democracy (2007), Emerson proposes a consensus oriented approach based on the Modified Borda Count (MBC) voting method. The group first elects, say, three referees or consensors. The debate on the chosen problem is initiated by
2820-414: The ground rules for the meeting have been agreed upon, each item of the agenda is addressed in turn. Typically, each decision arising from an agenda item follows through a simple structure: Quaker -based consensus is said to be effective because it puts in place a simple, time-tested structure that moves a group towards unity. The Quaker model is intended to allow hearing individual voices while providing
2880-463: The group members in order to build the experience and skills of the participants, and prevent any perceived concentration of power. The common roles in a consensus meeting are: Critics of consensus blocking often observe that the option, while potentially effective for small groups of motivated or trained individuals with a sufficiently high degree of affinity , has a number of possible shortcomings, notably Consensus seeks to improve solidarity in
2940-470: The long run. Accordingly, it should not be confused with unanimity in the immediate situation, which is often a symptom of groupthink . Studies of effective consensus process usually indicate a shunning of unanimity or "illusion of unanimity" that does not hold up as a group comes under real-world pressure (when dissent reappears). Cory Doctorow , Ralph Nader and other proponents of deliberative democracy or judicial-like methods view explicit dissent as
3000-435: The option of blocking a group decision. This provision motivates a group to make sure that all group members consent to any new proposal before it is adopted. When there is potential for a block to a group decision, both the group and dissenters in the group are encouraged to collaborate until agreement can be reached. Simply vetoing a decision is not considered a responsible use of consensus blocking. Some common guidelines for
3060-439: The organized political power of the community, in order to promote and protect common interests. If political representatives reflect this diversity, then there will be as much disagreement in the legislature as there is in the population. To ensure the agreement or consent of all participants is valued, many groups choose unanimity or near-unanimity as their decision rule. Groups that require unanimity allow individual participants
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#17327730837583120-443: The possibility of compromise or other mutually beneficial solutions. Carlos Santiago Nino, on the other hand, has argued that majority rule leads to better deliberation practice than the alternatives, because it requires each member of the group to make arguments that appeal to at least half the participants. Some advocates of consensus would assert that a majority decision reduces the commitment of each individual decision-maker to
3180-481: The practice as part of the loose and participatory structure of WSP. As consensus grew in popularity, it became less clear who influenced who. Food Not Bombs , which started in 1980 in connection with an occupation of Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant organized by the Clamshell Alliance , adopted consensus for their organization. Consensus was used in the 1999 Seattle WTO protests , which inspired
3240-464: The process run more effectively. Although the name and nature of these roles varies from group to group, the most common are the facilitator , consensor , a timekeeper, an empath and a secretary or notes taker. Not all decision-making bodies use all of these roles, although the facilitator position is almost always filled, and some groups use supplementary roles, such as a Devil's advocate or greeter. Some decision-making bodies rotate these roles through
3300-491: The ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae , but that family is commonly referred to as the "walnut family". The delineation of what constitutes a family— or whether a described family should be acknowledged— is established and decided upon by active taxonomists . There are not strict regulations for outlining or acknowledging
3360-510: The same way. Since unanimity of this kind rarely occurs in groups with more than one member, groups that try to use this kind of process usually end up being either extremely frustrated or coercive. Decisions are never made (leading to the demise of the group), they are made covertly, or some group or individual dominates the rest. Sometimes a majority dominates, sometimes a minority, sometimes an individual who employs "the Block." But no matter how it
3420-460: The unanimous conviction of Jesus by corrupt priests in an illegally held Sanhedrin court (which had rules preventing unanimous conviction in a hurried process) strongly influenced the views of pacifist Protestants, including the Anabaptists (Mennonites/Amish), Quakers and Shakers. In particular it influenced their distrust of expert-led courtrooms and to "be clear about process" and convene in
3480-409: The use of consensus blocking include: A participant who does not support a proposal may have alternatives to simply blocking it. Some common options may include the ability to: The basic model for achieving consensus as defined by any decision rule involves: All attempts at achieving consensus begin with a good faith attempt at generating full-agreement, regardless of decision rule threshold. In
3540-453: The very opposite, the degree of dissent. The Modified Borda Count has been put forward as a voting method which better approximates consensus. Some formal models based on graph theory attempt to explore the implications of suppressed dissent and subsequent sabotage of the group as it takes action. High-stakes decision-making, such as judicial decisions of appeals courts, always require some such explicit documentation. Consent however
3600-488: Was not yet settled, and in the preface to the Prodromus Magnol spoke of uniting his families into larger genera , which is far from how the term is used today. In his work Philosophia Botanica published in 1751, Carl Linnaeus employed the term familia to categorize significant plant groups such as trees , herbs , ferns , palms , and so on. Notably, he restricted the use of this term solely within
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