The question of governance has come up recently on a list that I contribute to called fibreculture. There is (perhaps predictably) a reluctance by the present moderators (in which there are 14) to embrace a more representative democratic model. This is for a number of reasons; most notably because the list comes from the dot com Libertarian era in which stucture was seen as bad (even the structures that the Libertarians exploited). But initiating and maintaining democratic structures can also be alot of work so we will see what happends. However, I don’t see a future for the list unless the list moderators explore some sort of practical democratic sustainablity beyond the present Libertarian form.
Here is how another list’s governence works (H-Net but we are in a seriously different league with this organisation).