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? | 104 randomly selected residents, stratified including by constitutional attitudes, deliberated over eight weekends and voted on a vision and 60 recommendations.Sortition / citizens' assembly | Unknown | Kings of small kingdoms (túatha) under over-kings; assemblies (óenach); customary law expounded by hereditary jurists rather than legislated. | |
| How are conflicts resolved? | Independent conveners and facilitated small groups; no means to resolve the boycott by parties that viewed the assembly as partisan. | Unknown | Brehon judges; sureties (naidm, ráth, aitire); distraint of livestock; ritual fasting against higher-ranking defendants; body-fines and honour-price compensation.Arbitration | |
| How are public goods funded? | Government-funded (final cost £0.938 million); produced recommendations and a model for later Scottish assemblies. | Unknown | Rules on shared grazing, co-operative ploughing, mills and fencing; obligatory hospitality; churches and monasteries; few public works. | |
| How is AI used? | No AI role. | Unknown | None; a medieval legal order. | |
| What are the main risks? | Perception of partisan purpose; remit too broad to produce implementable proposals; non-binding status and a general government response. | Unknown | Status-graded and unequal protection, unfree labour, endemic raiding and dynastic war, and vulnerability to a centralising conqueror.CLM-0385 |
This illustrates differences in design; it is not a universal claim about outcomes. Each cell links to mechanisms and the claims behind them.