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?Jurors are drawn in proportion to staked PNK, vote on evidence, and the majority decides; losing parties can appeal to larger juries.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?Online evidence submission, juror vote and multi-round appeals; the ruling is executed by smart contract.ArbitrationBrehon 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?Funded by arbitration fees paid by the parties and by token incentives.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?Core rulings are by human jurors; Kleros reports experiments with AI participants in curation courts.None; a medieval legal order.No AI role.
What are the main risks?Stake-weighted selection favours large holders; collusion or bribery; enforcement beyond the chain depends on state recognition.Status-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.