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.
- Friedrich HayekThinkerAustrian-born economist and social theorist who argued that dispersed knowledge makes central planning unworkable and that grown rules and markets form spontaneous orders; Nobel laureate 1974.
- FutarchyMechanismRobin Hanson's proposal: vote on values, bet on beliefs — elected bodies define a welfare measure, prediction markets choose policies expected to raise it.
- G1000 Citizens' Summit (Belgium, 2011)ExperimentA citizen-initiated summit held on 11 November 2011 in Brussels during Belgium's long government formation, bringing together about a thousand citizens to deliberate; it later inspired Belgian permanent citizen bodies.
- GeorgismIdeologyThe political economy of Henry George: land and natural resources belong to all, so land rent should fund public spending, ideally through a tax on land value. Tried in part in Fairhope, Alabama and Pittsburgh.
- Gitcoin quadratic fundingExperimentRounds of quadratic funding run by Gitcoin since 2019 to match small donations to open-source and public-goods projects.
- Global citizens' assembly (proposed permanent body)ExperimentProposals for a standing, lottery-selected assembly representing the world's population. The 2021 Global Assembly, held around COP26, was the first pilot; a permanent Global Citizens' Assembly has been under construction since 2024.
- Gross National Happiness (Bhutan)ExperimentBhutan's development philosophy, credited to King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in 1972, holding that policy should pursue collective happiness rather than output alone. Named in the 2008 constitution and measured by a nine-domain GNH Index.
- Hannah ArendtThinkerGerman-born American political theorist who analysed totalitarianism and argued that political freedom consists in acting together with others in a public space.
- Harberger taxMechanismOwners self-assess the value of their property, pay tax on that value and must sell to anyone who offers it.
- Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois League)ExperimentA confederacy of Native nations governed under the Great Law of Peace by a Grand Council of chiefs selected by clan mothers. Its founding date is debated; the Confederacy and its council continue today.
- Hélène LandemoreThinkerPolitical theorist who argues for 'open democracy' built around randomly selected assemblies; author of Open Democracy (2020).
- Hutterite coloniesExperimentCommunal Anabaptist farming colonies (Bruderhöfe) holding all property in common, with a community of goods traditionally dated to 1528. They operate across the Canadian prairies and the northern United States.
- Icarian communities (Étienne Cabet)ExperimentCommunist colonies founded from 1848 by followers of Étienne Cabet, author of Voyage en Icarie, in Texas, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and California. The last, near Corning, Iowa, dissolved by agreement in 1898.
- Iceland crowdsourced constitutionExperimentA 2011 constitution drafted by an elected Constitutional Council with online public input; endorsed in an advisory referendum but not adopted by parliament.
- Icelandic Commonwealth (Þjóðveldið)ExperimentA medieval Icelandic polity (c. 930–1262/64) with an annual national assembly, the Althing, a law speaker and chieftains (goðar) but no king or central executive; enforcement of court judgments was left largely to private parties. Cited in polycentric-law debates.
- Initiative and referendumMechanismTools of direct legislation: a citizen initiative puts proposals to a public vote by petition, and a referendum lets voters approve or reject measures. Central in Switzerland and many US states.
- Ireland Citizens' Assembly (2016–2018)ExperimentA chair and 99 randomly selected citizens who deliberated on constitutional questions, including the Eighth Amendment on abortion.
- Iron law of oligarchyTheoryMichels's claim that any large organisation, including a democratic party or union, tends to be run by a small leadership that entrenches itself.
- Israeli kibbutz movementExperimentVoluntary collective communities in Israel, begun at Degania in 1909-10, in which members traditionally shared income and property equally and decided policy in a general assembly. Since the 1980s crisis most have adopted differential pay and other privatising reforms.
- Italian Regency of Carnaro (Fiume)ExperimentA short-lived state around Fiume (Rijeka) set up by Gabriele D'Annunzio after he occupied the city in 1919. Its 1920 Carta del Carnaro, prepared with the syndicalist Alceste De Ambris, mixed universal suffrage, corporations and a famous article on music. Italian forces ended it in December 1920.
- James C. ScottThinkerPolitical scientist and anthropologist who studied how states make societies legible and how people evade state control.
- James M. BuchananThinkerAmerican economist, founder of the Virginia school of public choice; with Gordon Tullock wrote The Calculus of Consent (1962); Nobel laureate in economics 1986.
- James MadisonThinkerAmerican statesman and fourth US president; principal architect of the 1787 Constitution and author of Federalist No. 10, which argued that a large republic can better control the effects of faction.
- James S. FishkinThinkerAmerican political scientist at Stanford who devised deliberative polling, a method that combines random samples of citizens with structured deliberation.
- Jean-Jacques RousseauThinkerGenevan philosopher whose Social Contract (1762) argued that a state is legitimate only if guided by the general will of its members, and that sovereignty cannot be represented.
- John LockeThinkerEnglish philosopher who grounded legitimate government in consent and natural rights, and defended a right to resist rulers who violate the trust placed in them.
- John RawlsThinkerAmerican philosopher whose A Theory of Justice (1971) revived social-contract theory and set out justice as fairness, including the original position and the difference principle.
- John Stuart MillThinkerEnglish philosopher and political economist who defended individual liberty against both state and social coercion, and argued for representative government that protects minorities.
- Jürgen HabermasThinkerGerman philosopher of the Frankfurt School's second generation; theorist of the public sphere, communicative action and a discourse theory of law and democracy.
- Justice as fairnessTheoryRawls's theory that fair principles of justice are those free and equal citizens would choose behind a veil of ignorance: equal basic liberties and inequalities that most benefit the least advantaged.
- Kerala People's Plan CampaignExperimentA statewide campaign launched in 1996 that devolved a large share of Kerala's development plan funds and planning powers to elected village, block and municipal bodies.
- Kleros (decentralised court)ExperimentA blockchain-based dispute-resolution protocol launched on Ethereum in 2018. Crowdsourced jurors, drawn in proportion to staked tokens, rule on cases and are paid by incentives designed to reward votes that match the final ruling.
- Landsgemeinde of GlarusExperimentThe open-air assembly of the Swiss canton of Glarus, where citizens decide cantonal laws and budgets by show of hands each May.
- Legislature by lotExperimentA bicameral design proposed by John Gastil and Erik Olin Wright: an elected chamber paired with an equally empowered chamber of randomly selected citizens. It remains a proposal.
- LiberlandExperimentA self-proclaimed micronation declared in 2015 on Gornja Siga, land on the Danube that neither Croatia nor Serbia claims; not recognised by any UN member state.
- LibertarianismIdeologyA political philosophy that gives priority to individual liberty and voluntary exchange, typically defending a minimal state.
- Liquid democracyConceptA hybrid of direct and representative democracy in which members vote themselves or delegate their vote, revocably and transitively.
- Marinaleda (Andalusia, Spain)ExperimentAndalusian town of about 2,500 residents where a union-led movement under Mayor Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo (1979–2023) won a collectively farmed estate and runs a municipal self-build housing programme, governed through open assemblies.
- Market anarchismIdeologyThe family of views holding that law, security and dispute resolution can be supplied through voluntary market exchange without a territorial monopoly.
- MetaDAO (futarchy on Solana)ExperimentA Solana-based DAO that decides proposals through conditional pass/fail token markets instead of token votes. It launched in November 2023 and later built a launchpad whose project treasuries are governed the same way.