(This is an archived page, from the Patterns of Power Edition 3 book. Current versions are at book contents).
It is impossible to completely satisfy everybody, but a society is more stable if it pursues a policy of inclusivity: i.e. if it can be seen to try to be inclusive, taking account of everyone’s needs. This means treating everyone equally and preventing governance, as far as possible, from being completely unacceptable to anyone who is subject to it. There are three reasons why inclusiveness is important:
1. In societies with people from many different cultures, which in practice means almost everywhere, a policy of inclusivity is helpful in building harmony; this is described in more detail later (6.7.4.5).
2. This book’s search for acceptability in governance appears at first sight to be equivalent to the philosophy of Utilitarianism – ‘the greatest good of the greatest number’ – but what suits the majority might leave some people at a disadvantage.
3. People become disaffected if they feel that society has ignored them. They are then a threat to everyone else’s happiness and security.
Like acceptability, inclusiveness is unquantifiable; it is greater if more people find governance at least tolerable and it increases with cohesiveness, defined as people’s sense of belonging to the society.
© PatternsofPower.org, 2014