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?Undetermined: proposals range from rule by the launching state to settler self-government under a charter.Kings of small kingdoms (túatha) under over-kings; assemblies (óenach); customary law expounded by hereditary jurists rather than legislated.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?Treaty-based state responsibility and consultation; no settlement-level courts exist.Brehon judges; sureties (naidm, ráth, aitire); distraint of livestock; ritual fasting against higher-ranking defendants; body-fines and honour-price compensation.ArbitrationBalanced briefing materials, trained neutral moderators and competing experts structured disagreement.
How are public goods funded?Air, water and energy would be collectively critical; who controls them is a central question in governance studies.Rules on shared grazing, co-operative ploughing, mills and fencing; obligatory hospitality; churches and monasteries; few public works.Privately funded; produced published results, media coverage and a peer-reviewed study.
How is AI used?No documented AI role.None; a medieval legal order.No AI role.
What are the main risks?Conflict with Articles II, VI and VIII; unclear property rights; concentrated control of life-support systems.CLM-0348Status-graded and unequal protection, unfree labour, endemic raiding and dynastic war, and vulnerability to a centralising conqueror.CLM-0385Self-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.