From the "12 Steps and 12 Traditions" book:

 "For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority - a loving God as He may express Himself in our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern."

 "Where does AA get its direction? Who runs it? This, too, is a puzzler for every friend and newcomer. When told that our Society has no president having authority to govern it, no treasurer who can compel the payment of any dues, no board of directors who can cast an erring member into outer darkness, when indeed no AA can give another a directive and force obedience, our friends gasp and exclaim, 'This simply cannot be. There must be an angle somewhere.'  These practical folk then read Tradition 2, and learn that the sole authority in AA is a loving God as He may express Himself in the group conscience...

  "'Does AA have a real leadership?' Most emphatically the answer is 'Yes, notwithstanding the apparent lack of it.' ... The 'elder statesman' is the one who sees teh wisdom of the group's decision, who holds no resentment over his reduced status, whose judgement, fortified by considerable experience, is sound, and who is willing to sit quietly on the sidelines patiently awaiting developments. The bleeding deacon is one who is just as surely convinced that the group cannot get along without him, who constantly connives for reelection to office, and who continues to be consumed with self-pity. A few hemorrhage so badly that - drained of all AA spirit and principle - they get drunk. At times the AA landscape seems to be littered with bleeding forms. Nearly every oldtimer in our Society has gone through this process in some degree. Happily, most of them survive and live to become elder statesmen. They become the real and permanent leadership of AA. Theirs is the quiet opinion, the sure knowledge and humble example that resolve a crisis. When sorely perplexed, the group inevitably turns to them for advice. They become the voice of the group conscience; in fact, these are the true voice of Alcoholics Anonymous. They do not drive by mandate; they lead by example. This is the experience which has led us to the conclusion that our group conscience, well-advised by its elders, will be in the long run wiser than any single leader..."