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.
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Editors’ selectionConceptAI in governmentUse of machine-learning and automated decision systems by public administrations — from triage and fraud detection to drafting and translation.IdeaTheoryExamplesCritiqueResultsMechanismAI-assisted arbitrationDispute resolution in which AI systems triage cases, summarise evidence or propose outcomes, with or without a human decision-maker.IdeaTheoryExamplesCritiqueResultsExperimentAlaska Permanent Fund DividendAn annual cash dividend paid to eligible Alaska residents since 1982 from the earnings of the state's oil-funded Permanent Fund.IdeaTheoryExamplesCritiqueResults
All entries · A–Z
- 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.
- Anarcho-capitalismIdeologyA strand of market anarchism, associated with Murray Rothbard and David Friedman, that combines private property with privately supplied law and defence.
- 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.
- 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.
- Balaji SrinivasanThinkerEntrepreneur and investor; author of The Network State (2022).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- CityDAOExperimentA DAO organised as a Wyoming DAO LLC in 2021 that acquired land in Wyoming and governs it through token-holder votes.
- 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.
- Commons governanceConceptManagement of shared resources by their users through locally devised rules, rather than by privatisation or central state control.
- 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.
- 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.
- DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation)Institution typeAn organisation whose rules and treasury are encoded in smart contracts on a blockchain, usually governed by token-holder votes.
- David D. FriedmanThinkerEconomist who made the consequentialist case for anarcho-capitalism in The Machinery of Freedom (1973).
- David GraeberThinkerAmerican anthropologist and anarchist activist known for Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), critiques of bureaucracy and work, and a leading role in the Occupy movement.
- Decide Madrid and the Consul software (since 2015)ExperimentMadrid City Council's online participation platform, launched in 2015, combining proposals, debates, polls and participatory budgeting. Its open-source software, Consul, is reused by many other public bodies.
- Decidim BarcelonaExperimentBarcelona City Council's open-source participation platform, launched in 2016 and now used by many public bodies.
- Deliberative democracyConceptThe view that democratic legitimacy depends on informed public deliberation, often organised through randomly selected mini-publics.
- Deliberative legitimacyTheoryThe view that collective decisions are legitimate to the extent that free and equal citizens could accept them after public deliberation, rather than merely because preferences were aggregated.
- DemarchyExperimentJohn Burnheim's 1985 proposal to replace elections and multi-purpose territorial states with many specialised functional bodies whose members are chosen by lot from those affected. Never implemented.
- Democratic confederalismIdeologyAbdullah Öcalan's programme of stateless self-government through local communes and councils federated across ethnic and religious lines, drawing on Murray Bookchin. Applied in Rojava (northeast Syria), whose status changed in 2025–2026.
- Digital identityMechanismA government- or community-issued credential that lets people authenticate and sign electronically.
- Digital statehoodConceptDelivery of core state functions — identity, registries, services — through digital infrastructure, sometimes to people outside the territory.
- DistributismExperimentAn economic and social programme developed by G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, drawing on Catholic social teaching, that would spread productive property widely among families and small enterprises. No state has adopted it as an economic system.
- Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)ExperimentA financial free zone established in 2004 with its own civil and commercial laws and English-language common-law courts, inside the civil-law UAE.
- E. Glen WeylThinkerEconomist; developed quadratic voting and co-authored Radical Markets (2018) with Eric Posner.
- Elinor OstromThinkerPolitical economist who showed how communities govern common-pool resources; shared the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
- 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).
- 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.
- FederalismConceptA system in which authority is constitutionally divided between a central government and regional governments, neither of which can unilaterally abolish the other. Examples include the United States, Switzerland and Germany.
- Free Territory (Makhnovshchina), UkraineExperimentAn anarchist-influenced peasant movement around Huliaipole, southern Ukraine, led by Nestor Makhno. Between late 1918 and 1921 it held territory, backed local soviets, communes and regional congresses, and fought Whites, nationalists and Bolsheviks.
- Freetown ChristianiaExperimentA self-governing neighbourhood in Copenhagen founded in 1971 in former military barracks, with decisions taken by consensus in common meetings.
- French Citizens' Convention for Climate (2019–2021)ExperimentA 150-member randomly selected convention that proposed measures to cut French greenhouse emissions by at least 40% by 2030. The government adopted many proposals in full or part, but not all, and no referendum followed.