Processes, Good and Not So Good

Abstract

In this chapter, contrasts between several more successful and several less successful processes are drawn and explained. More successful processes have achieved inclusion by representation, utilized deliberation, and made decisions mainly by consensus. Less successful processes have lacked one or more of these characteristics. Countries that used more successful processes are notably more democratic than are those that used less successful processes. Preexisting conditions do not seem to account for these differences in the limited number of cases considered. Rather, leadership and the determination to persist with a scrupulous, time-consuming process appear to be the important determinants of the outcome.