> Having one guy at the top from whom all power flows. > > Power does not "flow" from RMS. Since you have used a political analogy: > I think it is more akin to a constitutional monarchy.
I think it's like the Queen of England. As a British person I used to know said: "The Queen of England has the power to veto anything passed by the Parliament in any Commonwealth country until she actually does it; at that point she'll lose that power". I see it as the same here: if RMS tried to exert an inappropriate level of control over some GNU project, it would soon be made clear that that something he can't do.
