Polity Atlas

How each model solves the same problems

Instead of “democracy versus anarchism”, compare the concrete ways collective problems get solved.

Question✕✕✕
How are decisions made?Company councils elected by workers' assemblies, general industry councils, an Economic Council of Catalonia, and in Aragon a Defence Council.Kings of small kingdoms (túatha) under over-kings; assemblies (óenach); customary law expounded by hereditary jurists rather than legislated.A statutory authority (UIDAI) under the central government sets rules; ministries decide where Aadhaar is required; Parliament legislated in 2016 and 2019.Digital identity
How are conflicts resolved?Disputes among unions, parties and the Generalitat were settled politically and, in May 1937 in Barcelona, by armed clashes.Brehon judges; sureties (naidm, ráth, aitire); distraint of livestock; ritual fasting against higher-ranking defendants; body-fines and honour-price compensation.ArbitrationGrievance channels at UIDAI and service agencies; constitutional challenges in the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2017 and 2018.
How are public goods funded?Collectivised firms ran under union and council management; the Generalitat lowered the working week to 40 hours and ordered a 15% rise for low salaries.Rules on shared grazing, co-operative ploughing, mills and fencing; obligatory hospitality; churches and monasteries; few public works.A universal, low-cost proof of identity used for welfare transfers, financial inclusion and public services.
How is AI used?No documented AI role.None; a medieval legal order.No AI in decision-making as such; automated biometric matching and deduplication decide authentication, and face authentication was added in 2018.
What are the main risks?Civil war and shortages; conflict between unions and parties; coercion in some rural collectives; loss of worker management through state intervention after 1937.CLM-0159Status-graded and unequal protection, unfree labour, endemic raiding and dynastic war, and vulnerability to a centralising conqueror.CLM-0385Exclusion through authentication failures, data leaks, surveillance and profiling, weak independent oversight and function creep.CLM-0544

This illustrates differences in design; it is not a universal claim about outcomes. Each cell links to mechanisms and the claims behind them.