ABSTRACT
It is pragmatically and psychologically beneficial for people to shape their environments to benefit their individual and community lives. In antiquity, people found efficacy in locating a temple dedicated to the veneration of a deity in a spot considered sacred. From antiquity to the present day, moreover, uprisings by people against power have always included attacking the physical structures that symbolized and upheld the social system people were fighting against. The concept of participatory decision making, that people should deliberate together over issues that affect their future and make decisions accordingly, is age-old. In a group of individuals trying to reach agreement, participatory decision making takes the power of making decisions away from any one individual and distributes it to everyone. Participatory decision making takes place in a legal and regulatory framework. Many states require that decisions that affect people be made with their knowledge and input.
