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
- Abdullah ÖcalanThinkerKurdish political leader, co-founder of the PKK and imprisoned in Turkey since 1999, whose prison writings abandoned the goal of a Kurdish nation-state for 'democratic confederalism', the ideological basis of self-administration in north-east Syria; a deeply contested figure.
- Albert O. HirschmanThinkerEconomist who framed exit and voice as the two responses to decline in firms, organisations and states.
- Alexis de TocquevilleThinkerFrench political scientist and politician whose Democracy in America (1835–40) analysed how equality of conditions shapes politics, and warned of centralisation, apathy and a mild despotism.
- Amartya SenThinkerIndian economist and philosopher, 1998 Nobel laureate for welfare economics, who developed the capability approach, extended social choice theory, analysed famines as failures of entitlement and argued that democracy and a free press protect against famine.
- Arend LijphartThinkerDutch-born American political scientist who developed the theory of consociational democracy and compared majoritarian and consensus models of democracy.
- AristotleThinkerGreek philosopher whose Politics classified constitutions by who rules and whether they rule for the common advantage; a founding text of comparative political analysis and the mixed constitution.
- Audrey TangThinkerCivic hacker from the g0v community; served as Taiwan's digital minister from 2016 to 2024.