aside from all the arguments here,

just wanted to say that a friend of mine worked in Venezuela for a bit, and thought it was interesting that Chavez set up a system where neighbourhoods gathered - of 500 people for each grouping- and were given a budget and power to make decisions. 

i like this idea because it is a more manageable number of people than current large municipalities.  you can fit 500 people into a very large barn.  it has the potential, given proper small group work, to be a useful kind of organizational base.  maybe not as ideal as freely associating affinity groups, but then affinity groups can be rather insular. 

just thinking out loud.