Knowledge Atlas · Reference
Glossary & ontology
Terms are defined once and translated with care — terminology must survive translation intact.
O
- Ochlocracy
- Rule by the mob; in Polybius's account, the degenerate form into which democracy decays when violence and demagogues replace law.
- Off-world governance
- Rules, institutions and legal authority for human activity and settlement beyond Earth, including the Moon, Mars and orbital habitats.
- Oligarchy
- Rule by a small number of people; in Aristotle's classification, the deviant form of rule by the few, in which the wealthy or well-born rule in their own interest.
- Ostracism
- An Athenian procedure by which citizens could vote to banish a prominent person for ten years without a trial and without loss of property.
- Ostrom's design principles
- Eight features Elinor Ostrom found in long-enduring institutions for governing common-pool resources.
- Outer Space Treaty
- The 1967 treaty that bars national appropriation of outer space and celestial bodies, keeps states responsible for their private space activities, and limits military use of the Moon and other bodies.