I used the phrase, "Social Consensus" to distinguish from "Workgroup Task Consensus." This is not a phrase you used.

By "small group of people" are you referring to an elite group, a "global cabal" directing the affairs of humanity? "Agency for people in general" to set policy? You mean voting and other civic involvement? If this is to what you refer, then you are in the realm of Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent." If not, then I am unclear what you mean by "rational way to determine what society should look like" or what "utopic ideals" would have to do with wondering if this "needs to be in everything, no matter how small?"