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?Residents propose capital projects; city services check feasibility and merge ideas; residents vote online and in person; winners are built by the city.Kings of small kingdoms (túatha) under over-kings; assemblies (óenach); customary law expounded by hereditary jurists rather than legislated.Each listed body sets its own well-being objectives and steps; the Welsh Ministers publish national indicators and a future trends report after each election.
How are conflicts resolved?Administrative review and committee merging of similar ideas; disputes over eligibility are settled by the city.Brehon judges; sureties (naidm, ráth, aitire); distraint of livestock; ritual fasting against higher-ranking defendants; body-fines and honour-price compensation.ArbitrationThe Commissioner may review a body and recommend; the body must take reasonable steps to follow or publish reasons (s 22). The Auditor General examines application of the principle.
How are public goods funded?A share of the municipal investment budget funds playgrounds, schools, greening, sport and cycle facilities, with an earmark for working-class neighbourhoods.Participatory budgetingRules on shared grazing, co-operative ploughing, mills and fencing; obligatory hospitality; churches and monasteries; few public works.Covers the Welsh Ministers, local authorities, health boards, national park authorities and other listed bodies; public services boards plan locally.
How is AI used?No AI role.None; a medieval legal order.No documented AI role.
What are the main risks?Low and socially skewed turnout; administrative agenda control; projects substituting for ordinary spending; narrowing of eligible categories.Status-graded and unequal protection, unfree labour, endemic raiding and dynastic war, and vulnerability to a centralising conqueror.CLM-0385Soft 'follow or explain' enforcement; procedural compliance; difficulty measuring long-term and preventative benefits.

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