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? | A constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament since 2008; GNH is a guiding principle (Art. 9) and a policy lens, not a separate decision body. | A stratified random sample of 523 voters deliberated in moderated groups and plenaries and answered questionnaires before and after; no decisions were taken.Sortition / citizens' assembly | Kings of small kingdoms (túatha) under over-kings; assemblies (óenach); customary law expounded by hereditary jurists rather than legislated. | |
| How are conflicts resolved? | GNH Commission screening of draft policies was advisory, not a veto (GNH Centre Bhutan); the Commission was dissolved in 2022. | Balanced briefing materials, trained neutral moderators and competing experts structured disagreement. | Brehon judges; sureties (naidm, ráth, aitire); distraint of livestock; ritual fasting against higher-ranking defendants; body-fines and honour-price compensation.Arbitration | |
| How are public goods funded? | Surveys track nine domains: psychological well-being, health, education, time use, cultural diversity, governance, community vitality, ecology and living standards. | Privately funded; produced published results, media coverage and a peer-reviewed study. | Rules on shared grazing, co-operative ploughing, mills and fencing; obligatory hospitality; churches and monasteries; few public works. | |
| How is AI used? | No documented AI role. | No AI role. | None; a medieval legal order. | |
| What are the main risks? | Vague concept open to selective use; self-reported survey data; limited evidence that GNH changes decisions; critics cite minority exclusion.CLM-0292 | Self-selection into attendance; artificial setting; analysis by the method's designers; no institutional uptake. | Status-graded and unequal protection, unfree labour, endemic raiding and dynastic war, and vulnerability to a centralising conqueror.CLM-0385 |
This illustrates differences in design; it is not a universal claim about outcomes. Each cell links to mechanisms and the claims behind them.