# Community protection by Democracy

**URL:** <https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/community-protection-by-democracy/422>\
**Category:** Rocky Linux Help & Support\
**Created:** [December 11, 2020, 1:00am UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/community-protection-by-democracy/422 "2020-12-11T01:00:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 3

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**Author:** ![jeffrey-a](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.rockylinux.org/jeffrey-a/32/208_2.png) [@jeffrey-a](https://forums.rockylinux.org/u/jeffrey-a)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 2:56am UTC](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/community-protection-by-democracy/422/3 "2020-12-11T02:56:23Z")

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This is a good start. As @James notes above, there ultimately always ends up being someone with ultimate authority anyway. In not-for-profits, that ends up being the board (whatever we may call them). So it’s very important to safeguard the board from undue influence, and a lot of that comes down to culture and who we elect. [Going a little bit into my comment in another thread](https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/rocky-linux-foundation/77/15) - I am intrigued by the idea of a referendum process that could override a board decision. I’ve never seen that done in a legal entity before, because the board of a legal organization is the ultimate decision making authority. That isn’t to say that can’t work; I’m just intrigued by it and would love to see how that might work. However, democracies are also subject to subversion, so that is definitely a double edged sword as @James says.

Some questions that would immediately stand out to me is – who is qualified to vote in a referendum? Who has standing to demand/request one? How would we guard against a situation where a referendum is stacked against the best interests of the community?

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