The proposed Collective/Democratic Decision Model aims to improve the requisite epistemic balance between well-meaning citizens and cooperating subject matter experts to help reach goals at all system levels. It is rooted in the “all affected principle” which holds that all those possibly affected by the outcome of a decision ought to have a voice in it, and as such, this principle may be considered to be a moral first concerning the just way to extend rights and responsibilities in a democratic regime. One of the class of problems that the proposed conceptual model seeks to address is group-think because after more than sixty years it continues to be a reference case without any further generally accepted insights as to what can go wrong in group decision-making. SURFPAD (Substantial Uncertainty with Ramified or Forked Priors or Assumptions = Disagreement) is emerging as an alternative explanatory model of group decision-making. This involves analogic perspective taking, a higher form of cognition that takes a lot of effort and is consequently rarely undertaken unless affirmatively provided for. Two affirmative strategies include de-risking decision-making and decision-taking.