Knowledge Atlas · Reference
Glossary & ontology
Terms are defined once and translated with care — terminology must survive translation intact.
L
- Land value tax
- A tax on the unimproved value of land, leaving buildings and improvements untaxed.
- Landsgemeinde
- An open-air assembly of all eligible citizens of a Swiss canton or district that votes on laws by show of hands.
- Legibility
- The degree to which a state can see, count and standardise a society — through maps, censuses, surnames and registries — in order to govern it.
- Legitimacy
- The belief, or the justified claim, that an authority has the right to rule and to be obeyed.
- Lex mercatoria
- 'Merchant law': rules and practices said to have governed medieval trade across jurisdictions.
- Liberum veto
- The right of any single member of the Polish Sejm to block a measure or end a session, so that legislation in practice required unanimity.
- Liquid democracy
- A system in which members vote directly or delegate their vote, by topic and revocably, to someone they trust.
- Loyalty
- Attachment to an organisation that makes members delay exit and use voice instead (Hirschman).