Yeah, this is another thing that liberals struggle to wrap their heads around.

Also it's not just about building consensus, it's about arriving at a compromise.

Take a situation where 52% of the country says "Let's do plan X because it would benefit us in many ways", and 48% says "if you do X that will harm us, we want to continue current implementation Y":

Liberal democracies divide the nation over the issue and attach X and Y to parties A and B. Then you vote for A or B, and whoever wins gets to have their way and whoever loses gets a big fat bowl of "too bad, so sad." The result? A nation divided, compatriots wishing death upon one another, partisan private media dehumanizing 'the opposition,' and oftentimes actual harm done to some of your people.

It gets to the point where it isn't just about getting things your way, but people in your nation take actual pleasure in seeing other groups in their nation denied. This 👏 is 👏 by 👏 design. A brave and noble land of "Fuck you, got mine," divided and easily ruled.

In whole-process democracy, taking an action that leaves 48% of your people completely disenfranchised (or even harmed) is completely unacceptable. It's unacceptable to the 48%, it's unacceptable to the government, and if it's not also unacceptable to the 52% then you've failed to educate them. Instead of exacerbating any decision, a group like the National People's Congress either tackles the issue directly or forms a committee for it. Instead of going straight to a vote they ask questions like "How is X harmful? Can we make it not harmful?" They'll either synthesize a new plan Z at best or they'll not change anything at worse. And then there's a vote.

Everyone involved knows that genuine effort has been made, consulting with the best expertise the nation has available, to create plan Z. Citizens know that if they're asked to compromise, whatever they're asked to give up is giving to their compatriots more than it's taking from them. If a proposal polls at a 60-40 split that doesn't mean you push it through, it means you go back and find out how to bring more of that 40 on side. The vote is an official record of consensus; a formality in a successful and functioning government and a constitutional protection in one that has failed and become disunited.

No sentient, compassion-capable mind would choose the immediate line in the sand over the process of consensus. But that's how fucked Western culture is, that protagonist, antagonist, conflict is seen as a better expression of government for and by the people than thesis, antithesis, synthesis.

In contrast with liberal "democracies" we can see how they treat referendums as this random thing done with a year or two of preparation, and that whatever is the outcome is the will of ~~God~~the people, which is immutable and can only be tested once in a generation, so long as they benefit the ruling class. Brexit got voted for, therefore it must happen no matter what, but the indyref didn't get the 50% so better wait until all Scots die of old age. And when the result of the referendum goes overwhelmingly against the ruling class interest, like in Donetsk/Luhansk or even in Catalunya, then it must've been stuffed ballots, and it was illegal, and no we won't redo the referendum to test that hypothesis.

Why are libs downvoting shit in c/communism? Absolutely deranged behavior

The liberal vote goes like this: here’s the question, you can answer yes or no, knock yourself out.

And that's the ideal of liberal democracy. In real one you get one referendum per decades and the rest of the time you only get to check one or more boxes on the card which may or may not have any impact over who will be the middlemen between the value stolen from you and people stealing it. And all of the above could as well get just ignored if it went not as the latter people wanted, then it's coups, martial laws, invasions etc.

Consensus decision making is baller as hell. We've been using it in our commune for about 3 years now and have noticed massive improvements across the board.

As well, the end result of the "yes or no" answer style "democracy" is that you're given two options and have to choose between those options.

You're fucking delusional if you think communists don't silence dissent once in power. I'll prove it to you, right now.

99% votes are the result of intimidation.