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
- Balaji SrinivasanThinkerEntrepreneur and investor; author of The Network State (2022).
- Bali subak irrigation systemExperimentBalinese farmers' associations (subaks) that share water from common weirs and coordinate planting through a network of water temples. Lansing showed that temple-level scheduling balances water supply against pest control; the system survived a Green Revolution conflict and was listed by UNESCO in 2012.
- Basque Concierto Económico (fiscal autonomy)ExperimentSpain's Basque Country collects and regulates most of its own taxes through its three historical territories and pays the State a negotiated quota (cupo) for services it does not provide. Dating from 1878 and renewed in 1981 and 2002, it is one of Europe's strongest regional fiscal autonomies.
- Bellicist theory of state formationTheoryCharles Tilly's argument that in early modern Europe war made the state and the state made war: the need to fund armies forced rulers to tax, borrow and build bureaucracies. Influential for Europe, it travels poorly to Africa and Latin America, and economic rivals dispute its causal priority.
- Better Reykjavik (Betri Reykjavík, since 2010)ExperimentAn online platform where residents propose, argue and rank ideas; since 2011 the highest-ranked ideas are sent monthly to Reykjavik city council committees, which must process and answer them.
- Bologna Regulation on urban commons (since 2014)ExperimentA 2014 municipal regulation that lets residents and groups sign 'collaboration pacts' with the City of Bologna to care for and regenerate public spaces and buildings as commons. Based on the constitutional principle of horizontal subsidiarity, it has been copied by over 300 Italian municipalities, with more than 8,000 pacts signed nationally.
- British Columbia Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform (2004)ExperimentA 160-member randomly selected assembly, plus a chair, that studied electoral systems in 2004 and recommended BC-STV. Two referendums followed; neither reached the legislated thresholds.
- Brook FarmExperimentA communal farm and school at West Roxbury, Massachusetts (1841–1847), founded by George Ripley with transcendentalist ideals as a joint-stock company and converted in 1844 to a Fourierist association. Debt and a fire ended it.
- Bruce L. BensonThinkerEconomist who argued that law can be, and historically often was, produced without the state.
- Brussels Parliament mixed deliberative committees (since 2019)ExperimentSince December 2019 the Brussels regional parliament and the French-speaking Brussels parliament can form committees in which 45 citizens drawn by lot sit with 15 MPs (36 and 12 in the francophone body) to draft recommendations. Six had been held by 2024; MPs must report on follow-up within six months.
- Bundestag citizens' assembly on nutrition (Bürgerrat Ernährung, 2023–2024)ExperimentThe first citizens' assembly commissioned by the German Bundestag itself: 160 residents aged 16 or over, drawn by a public lottery, deliberated from September 2023 to January 2024 on food policy. Its nine recommendations, led by free school lunches for all children, were debated in March 2024 but are not binding.