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
- Carole PatemanThinkerBritish political theorist whose Participation and Democratic Theory (1970) revived participatory democracy against elitist theories, whose The Sexual Contract (1988) argued that the social contract presupposes a hidden contract of male domination, and who has advocated basic income.
- Champlain Housing TrustExperimentA community land trust in Burlington, Vermont, that began in 1984 and keeps homes affordable through resale restrictions.
- Charles TieboutThinkerEconomist whose 1956 model described residents 'voting with their feet' among local jurisdictions.
- Charter cityInstitution typeA new city on largely uninhabited land, governed by a charter whose rules differ from those of the host country — a concept proposed by Paul Romer in 2009.
- Cherán K'eri communal self-government (Michoacán, Mexico)ExperimentA Purépecha town in Michoacán that rose against illegal logging and organised crime in 2011, expelled political parties and won in court the right to govern itself by its own customs. A council of twelve elders chosen in neighbourhood assemblies has run the municipality since 2012.
- Citizens' Assembly of Scotland (2019–2021)ExperimentA government-commissioned assembly of 104 randomly selected residents that met from October 2019 to December 2020 on what kind of country Scotland should be. Boycotted by unionist parties as a perceived independence vehicle, it produced 60 recommendations; the government answered in November 2021.
- Citizens' initiative reviewMechanismA randomly selected panel of about two dozen voters studies a ballot measure for several days and writes a one-page statement of key findings and best arguments for and against, distributed to all voters. Developed in Oregon, made permanent there in 2011, and piloted in other US states and Switzerland.
- Citizenship and membershipConceptFull membership of a political community, combining legal status, rights and duties, and participation. Acquired by birth on the territory (jus soli), by descent (jus sanguinis) or by naturalisation, citizenship is contested at its edges: denizens, stateless persons, dual nationals and investor citizens.
- City-stateInstitution typeA self-governing political community centred on a single city and its hinterland, outside any larger state. Common from Sumer and the Greek poleis to the Italian republics and Hanseatic cities; today Singapore, Monaco and the Vatican are sovereign city-states, and Hamburg and Bremen are city-states within Germany.
- CityDAOExperimentA DAO organised as a Wyoming DAO LLC in 2021 that bought a 40-acre parcel in Wyoming and governed it through NFT-weighted votes; in May 2024 members voted to return the treasury to NFT holders.
- Civic republicanismIdeologyA political tradition that treats freedom as self-government and non-domination, sustained by active citizens, civic virtue and mixed institutions. Rooted in Rome, Florence and Venice, and revived by Pettit and Skinner.
- Climate Assembly UK (2020)ExperimentA citizens' assembly of 108 randomly selected UK residents, commissioned by six House of Commons select committees, that met over six weekends in 2020 and set out how the UK should reach net zero by 2050. Its report was advisory; the government never gave the point-by-point response MPs asked for.
- Collective Constitutional AI (Anthropic and CIP, 2023)ExperimentAn experiment in which about 1,000 representative Americans used the Polis platform to draft principles for an AI chatbot. Anthropic trained a model on the resulting public constitution and compared it with one trained on its own; the public model was less biased on a standard benchmark and equally capable.
- Commons governanceConceptManagement of shared resources by their users through locally devised rules, rather than by privatisation or central state control.
- CommuneInstitution typeA self-governing local community: the medieval sworn town and today's basic municipality in France and Italy, the revolutionary city council of the Paris Commune (1871), or a settlement sharing property and labour. State-imposed communes, such as China's in 1958–1984, had disastrous results.
- CommunitarianismIdeologyA school of political thought, prominent from the 1980s, that criticises liberal individualism for neglecting how communities form persons, and argues for the common good, civic virtue, social responsibility and the strengthening of families, localities and civil society alongside rights.
- Community land trustMechanismA nonprofit holds land in trust and sells or leases the buildings on it with resale limits that keep housing affordable.
- Condorcet methodsMechanismRanked-ballot voting methods that elect the candidate who beats every rival in head-to-head majority comparisons, when one exists, and differ in how they resolve cycles. Used mainly in organisations such as the Debian Project.
- ConfederationInstitution typeA union of sovereign states that delegate defence, foreign affairs or trade to joint institutions acting mainly on member governments, usually with unanimity on key decisions and a right of exit. Examples include the Haudenosaunee, the US under the Articles (1781–1789) and the German Confederation.
- ConservatismIdeologyThe political disposition and tradition that distrusts abstract, rationalist plans for reconstructing society, values inherited institutions, customs and authority as stores of practical wisdom, and favours gradual reform over revolution.
- 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.
- ConstitutionalismConceptThe doctrine that political power should be limited by a higher law that binds rulers and is harder to change than ordinary legislation. Having a written constitution does not by itself guarantee it.
- Cooperative ownershipMechanismAn enterprise owned and democratically controlled by its members — workers, consumers or residents — usually one member, one vote.
- Cosmopolitan democracyExperimentA model of global democracy associated with David Held and Daniele Archibugi (1995) that adds regional and global democratic institutions, notably a world parliamentary assembly, without abolishing states. Only campaigns exist, not a global assembly.