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
- E. Glen WeylThinkerEconomist; developed quadratic voting and co-authored Radical Markets (2018) with Eric Posner.
- Economic democracyConceptThe extension of democratic principles from government to the economy: workers or citizens share control of firms, investment and economic policy. Forms include worker co-operatives, board-level codetermination, wage-earner funds and participatory planning.
- Elinor OstromThinkerPolitical economist who showed how communities govern common-pool resources; shared the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
- Elite theoryTheoryThe theory, from Mosca, Pareto and Michels to C. Wright Mills, that every society is ruled by an organised minority whatever its formal constitution. Pluralists such as Dahl contested it; recent work on unequal policy responsiveness has revived it.
- ENS DAO (Ethereum Name Service)ExperimentThe decentralised autonomous organisation that has governed the Ethereum Name Service and its treasury since November 2021. It is unusual for its five-article constitution protecting name owners, its elected working-group stewards, a Cayman foundation as legal wrapper and a time-limited Security Council that can only cancel malicious proposals.
- Epistemic democracyTheoryThe view that democracy is valuable partly because it tends to produce correct or good decisions. Supported by the Condorcet jury theorem and by models in which cognitive diversity beats individual ability; challenged by evidence of voter ignorance and by mathematical critiques of those models.
- EpistocracyExperimentDistribution of political power by competence or knowledge. Jason Brennan's Against Democracy (2016) argues for epistocratic options such as weighted voting by tested political knowledge. A theoretical proposal.
- Eric A. PosnerThinkerLegal scholar; co-author of Radical Markets (2018).
- Erik Olin WrightThinkerAmerican analytical Marxist sociologist who studied class structure and, through the Real Utopias Project, evaluated democratic egalitarian institutions such as participatory budgeting, co-operatives, Wikipedia and basic income by their desirability, viability and achievability.
- Estonia e-ResidencyExperimentA government-issued digital identity that lets non-residents use Estonian e-services, such as founding and running a company online.
- Estonian Internet voting (i-voting, since 2005)ExperimentRemote online voting for binding elections, offered nationwide in Estonia since the 2005 local elections; in 2023 just over half of participating voters cast their ballot online. Its security remains debated.
- Evergreen Cooperatives (Cleveland, Ohio)ExperimentNetwork of worker-owned businesses set up from 2008–09 in Cleveland's Greater University Circle with hospital and university anchor institutions as customers, aiming to build equity for low-income residents.
- Exit rightsMechanismThe guaranteed ability of members to leave a polity or organisation, ideally with defined treatment of their assets and obligations.
- Exit, voice and loyaltyTheoryHirschman's framework: members respond to decline by leaving (exit) or speaking up (voice); loyalty shapes the balance.