01 · Knowledge Atlas
Switch to graph viewAn encyclopedia of social systems
Theories, political philosophies, economic models, institution types and forms of self-government — each idea traced through theory, real examples, critique and results.
All entries · A–Z
- ConsociationalismTheoryArend Lijphart's theory that deeply divided societies can sustain democracy through elite power-sharing: grand coalition, mutual veto, proportionality and segmental autonomy. Associated with Lebanon, Belgium, Northern Ireland and Bosnia.
- Constitutional political economyTheoryThe economic study of rules, founded by Buchanan and Tullock's The Calculus of Consent (1962): constitutions are judged by whether individuals could agree to them as the framework for later political choice.
- Deliberative legitimacyTheoryThe view that collective decisions are legitimate to the extent that free and equal citizens could accept them after public deliberation, rather than merely because preferences were aggregated.
- Exit, voice and loyaltyTheoryHirschman's framework: members respond to decline by leaving (exit) or speaking up (voice); loyalty shapes the balance.
- Iron law of oligarchyTheoryMichels's claim that any large organisation, including a democratic party or union, tends to be run by a small leadership that entrenches itself.
- Justice as fairnessTheoryRawls's theory that fair principles of justice are those free and equal citizens would choose behind a veil of ignorance: equal basic liberties and inequalities that most benefit the least advantaged.
- PolyarchyTheoryDahl's term for real-world regimes that approximate democracy through free elections, broad suffrage, free expression, alternative information and autonomous associations.
- Public choice theoryTheoryAn approach that applies economic models of self-interested behaviour to voters, politicians and bureaucrats. Associated with Buchanan, Tullock, Downs and Olson; its findings on rent-seeking and rational ignorance are influential and disputed.
- Republican freedom as non-dominationTheoryPettit's neo-republican theory that freedom is independence from the arbitrary power of others, so a person with a benevolent master is still unfree.
- Social contract theoryTheoryA family of theories that ground political authority in an agreement, actual or hypothetical, among those governed. Classic versions come from Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and, in the twentieth century, Rawls.
- Spontaneous orderTheoryHayek's idea that large-scale social coordination can emerge from many individuals following general rules, without any person or authority designing the whole.
- Theory of communicative actionTheoryHabermas's theory that social coordination can rest on mutual understanding reached by exchanging and contesting reasons, free of coercion, rather than on strategic calculation or power alone.
- Tiebout modelTheoryResidents choosing among many local jurisdictions sort by their preferred mix of taxes and public goods — 'voting with their feet'.