Phrases like “benevolent dictator for life” have become pretty widespread, and they are cute, but I think the slightly obscure the issue or focus on the wrong thing.
A dictator can function with a small, powerful core of supporters (usually the military and then some key demographic or powerbrokers depending on the situation), and then keep the rest of the populace in their place through violence if necessary.
I think when we talk about somebody like Linus or Guido, they aren’t really dictators so much as consensus leaders. Everybody might not agree with their individual decisions, but there’s widespread agreement that somebody has to lead, and everyone can agree that there isn’t anyone who can do a better job.
And we should also note that Democracy isn’t some self-perpetuating system that can actually impose itself. Functionally, we don’t have a democracy because there’s 51% support for the leaders. We have a democracy because there’s broad consensus in the idea that, while we don’t always agree with the individual decisions of the democracy, we don’t have a better way of making decisions.
Honestly I don’t think it really matters so much how the decision making process works. Functional systems are ones in which the decision making process has broad consensus support. It could be tied to an idea, it could be tied to a person, it could even be tied to some abstract idea like following the rules of a religion. What matters is that people broadly think the system is good, follow it when nobody is checking, and are ok with following the spirit of the rules rather than getting hung up on process and technicalities. In open source, these tend to be personalized systems because somebody will just start a personal project and it will grow, but that’s very tied to the nature of programming and the fact that an individual can easily get a minimum viable product for many programming ideas.
> Phrases like “benevolent dictator for life” have become pretty widespread
I dont think anyone said "for life" here. The thing about business "dictatorships" is that they are naturally temporary. These people will leave of their own accord or be fired if they're incompetent at some point. And if the very top doesn't fire these people, making themselves incompetent, then their business will struggle to sustain itself.
It's not like a dictatorial government which can rewrite laws and use military force.
A dictator can function with a small, powerful core of supporters (usually the military and then some key demographic or powerbrokers depending on the situation), and then keep the rest of the populace in their place through violence if necessary.
I think when we talk about somebody like Linus or Guido, they aren’t really dictators so much as consensus leaders. Everybody might not agree with their individual decisions, but there’s widespread agreement that somebody has to lead, and everyone can agree that there isn’t anyone who can do a better job.
And we should also note that Democracy isn’t some self-perpetuating system that can actually impose itself. Functionally, we don’t have a democracy because there’s 51% support for the leaders. We have a democracy because there’s broad consensus in the idea that, while we don’t always agree with the individual decisions of the democracy, we don’t have a better way of making decisions.
Honestly I don’t think it really matters so much how the decision making process works. Functional systems are ones in which the decision making process has broad consensus support. It could be tied to an idea, it could be tied to a person, it could even be tied to some abstract idea like following the rules of a religion. What matters is that people broadly think the system is good, follow it when nobody is checking, and are ok with following the spirit of the rules rather than getting hung up on process and technicalities. In open source, these tend to be personalized systems because somebody will just start a personal project and it will grow, but that’s very tied to the nature of programming and the fact that an individual can easily get a minimum viable product for many programming ideas.