How each model solves the same problems
Instead of “democracy versus anarchism”, compare the concrete ways collective problems get solved.
| Question | + Model | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| How are decisions made? | A college of Nine serving two-month terms, chosen from lists of eligible merchant-class men; a General Council of the Bell approving laws and taxes; a foreign podestà and a Captain of the People.Sortition / citizens' assembly | 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? | Courts under a hired foreign podestà; co-optation of magnates into lesser offices; militias against conspiracies. | Balanced briefing materials, trained neutral moderators and competing experts structured disagreement. | |
| How are public goods funded? | Palazzo Pubblico, Campo, fountains and aqueducts, walls and roads; financed by direct taxes assessed on a property survey and by indirect taxes. | Privately funded; produced published results, media coverage and a peer-reviewed study. | |
| How is AI used? | None; a medieval commune. | No AI role. | |
| What are the main risks? | Narrow oligarchy controlling eligibility lists, exclusion of magnates and artisans, banking failures, plague and external intervention.CLM-0408 | 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.