Alcoholics Anonymous as Decentralized Architecture

Posted 1/6/18

Most examples of decentralized organization are contemporary: Black Lives Matter, Antifa, the Alt-Right, and other movements developed largely on social media. Older examples of social decentralization tend to be failures: Collapsed Hippie communes of the 60s, anarchist and communist movements that quickly collapsed or devolved to authoritarianism, the “self-balancing free market,” and so on.

But not all leaderless movements are short-lived failures. One excellent example is Alcoholics Anonymous: An 82-year-old mutual aid institution dedicated to helping alcoholics stay sober. Aside from their age, AA is a good subject for study because they’ve engaged in a great deal of self-analysis, and have very explicitly documented their organizational practices.

Let’s examine AA’s Twelve Traditions and see what can be generalized to other organizations. The twelve traditions are reproduced below:

  1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends on AA unity.

  2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience.

  3. The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking.

  4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or AA as a whole.

  5. Each group has but one primary purpose - to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.

  6. An AA group ought never endorse, finance or lend the AA name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property and prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

  7. Every AA group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

  8. Alcoholics Anonymous should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

  9. AA, as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve

  10. Alcoholics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the AA name ought never be drawn into public controversy.

  11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.

  12. Anonymity is the spritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalitites.

The above twelve rules can be distilled to three themes:

  • The group comes first

  • The group is single-issue

  • The group should be independent of any external or internal structures

The first theme stresses anonymity in an interesting way: Not to protect individual members (many of whom want to be anonymous when in an organization like AA), but to prevent the rise of “rock-stars”, or powerful individuals with celebrity status. Personal power is prone to abuse, both at an inter-personal level (see the plethora of sexual abuse cases in the news right now), and at a structural level, where the organization becomes dependent on this single individual, and is drawn in to any conflict surrounding the celebrity.

The solution to a rock-star is to kick them out of the organization, and maintain a healthier community without them. AA has gone a step further however, and outlines how to prevent the rise of a rock-star by preventing any personal identification when communicating to the outside world. When you are speaking to the press you are Alcoholics Anonymous, and may not use your name. For further discussion on rock-stars in tech communities, see this article.

The single-issue design is an unusual choice. Many social movements like the Black Panthers stress solidarity, the idea that we should unite many movements to increase participants and pool resources. This is the same principle behind a general strike, and broad, cross-issue activist networks like the Indivisible movement. However, focusing on a single issue continues the trend of resisting corruption and abuse of power. AA keeps a very strict, simple mission, with no deviations.

The last theme, total organizational independence, is also unusual. Organizations that fear external attack, like terrorist cells, may operate in isolation from other cells with little to no higher-level coordination. Organizations avoiding internal corruption, like the Occupy movement, or fraternities, may limit internal leadership and centralization of power using systems like Robert’s Rules of Order or Clusters & Spokes Councils, or they may organize more anarchically, through organic discussion on social media. Avoiding both internal and external hierarchy, however, sacrifices both large-scale coordination and quick decision making. This works for Alcoholics Anonymous, because their mission is predefined and doesn’t require a great deal of complex leadership and decision making. It is also used by Antifa, where local groups have no contact with one another and rely on collective sentiment to decide on actions.

Overall, AA is an interesting introduction to decentralized organizations. I will revisit these ideas as I learn more.