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?A 28-member General Council (half elected by parish, half by national list) elects the head of government; the co-princes sanction laws with countersignature.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?A four-member Constitutional Tribunal appointed by the co-princes and the General Council; ordinary courts.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?Health, education and infrastructure funded by indirect, corporate and personal taxes; parishes run local services.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 specific role for AI.None; a medieval legal order.No AI role.
What are the main risks?Clash between the episcopal co-prince and legislation such as abortion; exclusion of non-citizens; dependence on France, Spain and the EU.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.