{rant}

I wonder if there's an ideal size for organizations where you want wide participation in management - or whether that's indeed what most organizations are interested in.

Sometimes you're just too big. I laugh when I see notices requesting Board nominations in a retirement system or union - you need sponsorships and supporters and a campaign committee and a budget on the order of running for legislative office to be competitive, and you have to REALLY want it to put up with the **** involved (meaning you're at least partly sociopathic). The best information for voters would be who the supporters are, but that info is rarely available in time to be useful, if ever. So the Board tends to devolve into a group that only accidentally has the members' interests in mind. Just like real life.

If the organization is small (like a condo association for a very small property), it's probably not viable for doing much but everybody who wants to be can be involved in running the show. If it's big enough to have elections, There Will Be Politics because those interested in running the show (rather than collecting benefits or working on stuff) are like that.

{/rant}