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? | The City Council and CLES convene anchor-institution leaders; each anchor sets its own procurement and employment policy within UK procurement law. | Unknown | 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 | |
| How are conflicts resolved? | No formal mechanism: collaboration is voluntary among independent institutions. | Unknown | Balanced briefing materials, trained neutral moderators and competing experts structured disagreement. | |
| How are public goods funded? | Living Wage employment, £100m of pension investment in Preston and South Ribble, and a Preston Co-operative Development Network with UCLan.Cooperative ownership | Unknown | Privately funded; produced published results, media coverage and a peer-reviewed study. | |
| How is AI used? | No documented AI role. | Unknown | No AI role. | |
| What are the main risks? | Attribution of outcomes is uncertain; critics call localist procurement 'zero sum' (Demos); dependence on public-sector anchors under austerity.CLM-0295CLM-0958 | Unknown | Self-selection into attendance; artificial setting; analysis by the method's designers; no institutional uptake. |
This illustrates differences in design; it is not a universal claim about outcomes. Each cell links to mechanisms and the claims behind them.