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
- Mancur OlsonThinkerAmerican economist whose Logic of Collective Action (1965) explained why large groups with common interests often fail to organise, and whose later work on distributional coalitions and 'stationary bandits' linked collective action to economic decline and state formation.
- Mary WollstonecraftThinkerEnglish writer whose Vindication of the Rights of Men answered Burke and whose Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) argued that women's apparent inferiority was the product of education and dependence, and demanded their education, independence and civil and political rights.
- Max WeberThinkerGerman sociologist who defined the state by its claim to a monopoly of legitimate force, distinguished traditional, charismatic and legal-rational authority, analysed bureaucracy as the 'iron cage' of modernity and defended plebiscitary leadership democracy.
- MenciusThinkerConfucian philosopher of the fourth century BCE who held that rulers keep Heaven's mandate only through benevolent government that wins the people's acceptance, and that a ruler who abandons benevolence forfeits the standing of a king.
- Mikhail BakuninThinkerRussian revolutionary and founder of collectivist anarchism who opposed both the state and religion, clashed with Marx in the First International and warned that a workers' state would become a new tyranny of educated rulers.
- MontesquieuThinkerFrench jurist and philosopher whose The Spirit of the Laws (1748) classified governments and argued that liberty is best protected when legislative, executive and judicial power are divided.
- Murray BookchinThinkerAmerican social theorist who founded social ecology and later advocated libertarian municipalism, a confederation of directly democratic municipal assemblies.
- Murray RothbardThinkerEconomist and theorist of anarcho-capitalism; author of For a New Liberty (1973).