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
- Aadhaar: India's biometric digital identityExperimentA 12-digit biometric identity number issued since 2010 to about 1.38 billion residents of India and used for welfare, banking and tax. It was placed on a statutory basis in 2016 and upheld with limits by the Supreme Court in 2018, after the 2017 Puttaswamy ruling declared privacy a fundamental right.
- 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.
- Ada Lovelace InstituteorganisationIndependent research institute established in 2018 by the Nuffield Foundation to ensure that data and AI work for people and society, known for public deliberation on technology such as the Citizens' Biometrics Council and for the Ryder Review of biometrics law.
- AI in governmentConceptUse of machine-learning and automated decision systems by public administrations — from triage and fraud detection to drafting and translation.
- AI-assisted arbitrationMechanismDispute resolution in which AI systems triage cases, summarise evidence or propose outcomes, with or without a human decision-maker.
- Alaska Permanent Fund DividendExperimentAn annual cash dividend paid to eligible Alaska residents since 1982 from the earnings of the state's oil-funded Permanent Fund.
- Albania's AI 'minister' DiellaExperimentAn AI system launched in January 2025 as the e-Albania virtual assistant. In September 2025 the government presented it as a 'virtual minister' for public procurement; its legal status is disputed and the Constitutional Court did not rule on its merits.
- 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.
- AlgocracyConceptGovernance in which algorithms structure, constrain or take decisions that once required human judgement or law. Coined by A. Aneesh for code-based control of work; extended by Danaher and others to public administration, where it raises problems of opacity, participation, error and redress.
- Algorithmic impact assessmentMechanismA structured assessment of an automated decision system's risks to people's rights and interests, carried out before deployment and reviewed afterwards, with obligations scaled to the risk level. Mandatory for Canadian federal systems since 2019 and, as fundamental rights impact assessments, for public deployers of high-risk AI under the EU AI Act.
- 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.
- America in One Room (2019 national Deliberative Poll)ExperimentIn September 2019, 523 registered voters chosen as a representative US sample deliberated for a long weekend near Dallas on immigration, the economy, health care, the environment and foreign policy. Compared with a control group, they moved closer together on most polarising proposals and grew warmer towards the other party.
- Anarcho-capitalismIdeologyA strand of market anarchism, associated with Murray Rothbard and David Friedman, that combines private property with privately supplied law and defence.
- Anarcho-communismIdeologyThe anarchist tradition, associated above all with Peter Kropotkin, that seeks to abolish the state, private property in the means of production, money and wage labour in favour of federated free communes distributing goods 'from each according to ability, to each according to needs'.
- Anarcho-syndicalismIdeologyAn anarchist current that sees revolutionary trade unions as both the means of struggle and the cell of a stateless, self-managed economy. Its main historical expression was Spain's CNT, founded in 1910.
- Andorra's co-principalityExperimentA Pyrenean micro-state whose heads of state are two co-princes, the Bishop of Urgell in Catalonia and the President of France, under arrangements dating from 1278. Since the 1993 Constitution, sovereignty rests with the people and power with an elected parliament and government.
- Approval votingMechanismA voting method in which each voter may approve of as many candidates as they wish and the candidate with the most approvals wins. Used in city elections in Fargo (2020–2024) and St. Louis (since 2021).
- ArbitrationMechanismParties submit a dispute to one or more privately chosen arbitrators whose award is binding.
- 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.
- Athenian democracy (Classical Athens)ExperimentThe direct democracy of Classical Athens, c. 508/7–322 BCE: an Assembly open to male citizens, a Council of 500 and many offices filled by lot, large lot-selected people's courts and ostracism. Women, slaves and resident foreigners had no political rights.
- Audrey TangThinkerCivic hacker from the g0v community; served as Taiwan's digital minister from 2016 to 2024.
- AurovilleExperimentAn intentional township founded in 1968 near Puducherry in Tamil Nadu, India, intended as a 'universal town' for people of all nations.
- Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (Rojava)ExperimentKurdish-led self-administration in north-eastern Syria, de facto autonomous from 2012 and organised on 'democratic confederalism'. Its autonomy was never recognised by Damascus; the dissolution of the SDF and integration into state structures was announced in August 2026.
- Autonomous regionInstitution typeA territory within a state granted special, usually entrenched self-government, often with its own legislature and powers over language, culture or resources, to accommodate a distinct population. Examples include Åland, South Tyrol, Greenland, Aceh and Bougainville; critics see autonomy as a possible step to secession.
- Autonomous Region of Bougainville (Papua New Guinea)ExperimentA post-conflict autonomy created by the 2001 Bougainville Peace Agreement after a decade of war over the Panguna mine and self-determination. In a 2019 referendum about 98 per cent of valid votes favoured independence; the result still awaits ratification by Papua New Guinea's parliament.