Refusing to Use the Tie-Breaker Role

My friend Bruce today told me about a book called The Seven-Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Day-Weekend-Changing-Work-Works/dp/1591840260 and brought up an interesting point about systems that are "open" but also have a "tie-breaker" role (manager or authoritarian).  In the system that Bruce described in the book, although this role existed, the manager never used his power as tie-breaker and would always put it back onto the group.  I thought that was interesting.