d by the local communities. The political system now is dominated by women in the Survivalist party, and they run meetings in an informal manner based around expressed concerns from the various participants. A gradual consensus emerges from the discussion held, but there is no voting or motions. The discussion itself can lead to dissension which must be dissipated:
Once this consensus is achieved, people take pains to assuage the feelings of those members who have had to give ground in order to achieve the consensus. Only after this healing process takes place is there formal ratification of the decision taken--the only action during three hours or so that has the feeling of ordinary political business as we know it (Callenbach 93).
However, the reporter who narrates this novel states that much gets done in this discu
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