Our understanding of how the world works was fundamentally altered when the mechanical model of closed, linear systems was replaced with cybernetics and complexity theory. Sociocracy is a governance method that uses these new sciences to design organizations that are as powerful, self-organizing, and self-correcting as the natural world, including the honeybees.

The United States Declaration of Independence asserts that all human beings are created equally and endowed with the unquestionable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In practice, however, these rights...