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?Online petitions with signature thresholds, a city-wide survey and collaborative editing fed a 30-member drafting group; a 100-member partly appointed assembly adopted the text by qualified majority.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.
How are conflicts resolved?Signature thresholds guaranteed graduated responses; disputes over the final text were settled in the assembly and later before the Supreme Court.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.Arbitration
How are public goods funded?A low-cost online platform; the resulting constitution enshrines rights to the city, a healthy environment and indigenous rights.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.
How is AI used?No AI role.No specific role for AI.None; a medieval legal order.
What are the main risks?Digital divide; organisers' own metrics of influence; partly appointed assembly; petitions favouring organised campaigns.CLM-0484Clash 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-0385

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