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    %POLITICAL PROCESS LEADERS PRIORITIES DECISIONS+950926
    %CONSENSUS TRADITIONS LEGISLATION INFORMAL ACTS+950926
  %NEWS PUBLICATIONS TV RADIO REPORTERS COMMENTATOR 950926

     Communal  PROCESSES  have many aspects  which  inter-
relate in ways which are not obvious to many people.

     News publications and commentators tend to focus upon
elected   formal   leaders,   conflicts,   proposals   and
legislation.   Not so often is there a focus upon informal
leaders,   consensuses,  traditions,  PROCESSES and formal
rules of PROCESS.

     Behind  every  formal PROCESS and  action  there  are
informal PROCESSES and actions.

     Behind every  formal leader and proposal,  there  are
informal leaders and proposals.

     Behind  every formal meeting of a legislative body or
political   caucus,   there  are  informal  meetings   and
dialogues among common people.

     Parallel  to every formal PROCESS, there are informal
traditions of procedure.

     Formal  rules  of PROCESS and informal traditions  of
procedure  are perhaps some of the most invisible  aspects
of  communal decision making.   They make possible  and/or
hinder  the possibility of the formulation of  formal  and
informal corporate decisions by groups of people.  Not all
corporate  decisions are made by corporations.   (Here the
word  "corporate"   connotes decisions by the whole  of  a
group, formal or informal---in contrast to decisions by an
individual.)

     If  there  is  no accepted  consensus  regarding  how
corporate  decisions  are  to  be  reached  and  generally
accepted---then communal integrity does not exist.  If the
consensus  regarding  how  corporate decisions are  to  be
reached  and accepted is un-workable,  unjust,  corrupt or
biased---then communal integrity does not exist.   In such
cases  integrative  PROCESSES need to be  developed;   new
structures which are both formal and informal need to give
direction  to  the  nature of the PROCESSES which lead  to
corporate decisions and actions.    Here the  focus is not
upon particular leaders,  issues and proposals;   but upon
the PROCESSES of  selecting  leaders,   framing issues and
proposals, debating, prioritizing, voting,  and tabulating
votes to represent the corporate will of the voters.

                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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