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? | Developers decide by general resolution and elect a Project Leader annually; a Technical Committee of up to eight decides technical disputes; ranked voting with a default option.Condorcet methods | A statutory authority (UIDAI) under the central government sets rules; ministries decide where Aadhaar is required; Parliament legislated in 2016 and 2019.Digital identity | 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? | Technical Committee rulings, overridable by developers with a 2:1 majority; the Project Secretary interprets the constitution. | Grievance channels at UIDAI and service agencies; constitutional challenges in the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2017 and 2018. | Balanced briefing materials, trained neutral moderators and competing experts structured disagreement. | |
| How are public goods funded? | A free operating system maintained by volunteers; assets held by Trusted Organisations such as Software in the Public Interest. | A universal, low-cost proof of identity used for welfare transfers, financial inclusion and public services. | Privately funded; produced published results, media coverage and a peer-reviewed study. | |
| How is AI used? | None in governance; decisions are by human votes and committees. | No AI in decision-making as such; automated biometric matching and deduplication decide authentication, and face authentication was added in 2018. | No AI role. | |
| What are the main risks? | Volunteer burnout, slow decisions, bitter disputes leading to resignations and forks, and dependence on a small active core. | Exclusion through authentication failures, data leaks, surveillance and profiling, weak independent oversight and function creep.CLM-0544 | 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.