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? | Assemblies of landholders in each 'land'; annually elected judges (redjeven, grietmannen); an annual assembly of delegates of the lands at the Upstalsboom.Popular assembly | Kings of small kingdoms (túatha) under over-kings; assemblies (óenach); customary law expounded by hereditary jurists rather than legislated. | Unknown | |
| How are conflicts resolved? | Compensation tariffs for wounds and killings, enforced by kin groups and judges; feud when compensation failed.Arbitration | Brehon judges; sureties (naidm, ráth, aitire); distraint of livestock; ritual fasting against higher-ranking defendants; body-fines and honour-price compensation.Arbitration | Unknown | |
| How are public goods funded? | Dykes, sluices and drainage built and maintained by communities with obligations attached to land; monasteries assisted reclamation. | Rules on shared grazing, co-operative ploughing, mills and fencing; obligatory hospitality; churches and monasteries; few public works. | Unknown | |
| How is AI used? | None; a medieval polity. | None; a medieval legal order. | Unknown | |
| What are the main risks? | Capture of office by wealthy families, chieftain feuds, no enforcement power above the lands, and pressure from neighbouring princes. | Status-graded and unequal protection, unfree labour, endemic raiding and dynastic war, and vulnerability to a centralising conqueror.CLM-0385 | Unknown |
This illustrates differences in design; it is not a universal claim about outcomes. Each cell links to mechanisms and the claims behind them.