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?CCP Politburo and Standing Committee under Chairman Mao; party committees shadowing every state body; the National People's Congress ratified decisions. Mao repeatedly bypassed formal bodies.Grand Council of 50 chiefs chosen by clan mothers; questions pass between groups of nations, each seeking unanimity, with the Onondaga Firekeepers confirming or resolving disagreement.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?Party discipline, public security organs, labour camps and mass 'struggle' meetings; no independent courts. Disputes within the leadership ended in purges.The Confederacy describes the Grand Council as resolving disputes among the nations and planning for the welfare of all the people.Balanced briefing materials, trained neutral moderators and competing experts structured disagreement.
How are public goods funded?Central planning and collective farms; urban work units supplied housing, rations and services; rural basic health care and schooling expanded.UnknownPrivately funded; produced published results, media coverage and a peer-reviewed study.
How is AI used?None; a pre-digital planned economy.No documented AI role.No AI role.
What are the main risks?Unchecked personal power, falsified statistics, campaign quotas, no exit from collectives, and suppression of dissent turning policy errors into mass death.Operates alongside US and Canadian governments, which limits its practical jurisdiction; its rule of unanimity within and between blocs requires broad agreement.CLM-0117CLM-0118Self-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.