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?Open village assemblies of adults, dominated by men, seeking consensus; councils of lineage elders holding the ofo; title societies; women's assemblies for women's affairs and markets.Popular assemblyGrand Council of 50 chiefs chosen by clan mothers; questions pass between groups of nations, each seeking unanimity, with the Onondaga Firekeepers confirming or resolving disagreement.Unknown
How are conflicts resolved?Escalation from family to lineage, elders, assembly and oracles; oaths and ordeals; fines, ostracism and collective shaming such as 'sitting on a man'.The Confederacy describes the Grand Council as resolving disputes among the nations and planning for the welfare of all the people.Unknown
How are public goods funded?Paths, markets, shrines and defence supplied by age grades and communal labour; land allocated by lineages.UnknownUnknown
How is AI used?None; a pre-colonial polity.No documented AI role.Unknown
What are the main risks?Exclusion and stigma (slaves, osu), oracle abuse and slave trading, limited capacity above the village-group, and conquest by a centralised colonial state.CLM-0390Operates alongside US and Canadian governments, which limits its practical jurisdiction; its rule of unanimity within and between blocs requires broad agreement.CLM-0117CLM-0118Unknown

This illustrates differences in design; it is not a universal claim about outcomes. Each cell links to mechanisms and the claims behind them.