Participative methods and consensus theory

The present Technical Report contains a concise analysis of some participatory methods and a discussion of the method of consensus as a formal tool for decisionmaking. The treatment is kept at an informal and colloquial level with the aim to be precise and concise. The main source is Elliot et al. (2005) but other sources are used and will be mentioned in the right places. This Technical Report relies mainly on classical results, so that it may be considered as a real primer on these topics, but contains also novel material and results, essentially in section 4 and in the Appendix. Reports of errors and inaccuracies are gratefully appreciated.