Polity Atlas
BriefingEstablished

How to read epistemic statuses in Polity Atlas

Every claim is labelled established, theory, disputed, hypothesis or forecast — and separately as verified or not. Here is what the labels mean.

Polity Atlas editorsPublished 5 Jan 2026 · 1 min read

Established: broad agreement and solid sources. Theory: a coherent account, not settled empirically. Disputed: credible sources disagree. Hypothesis: plausible but untested. Forecast: about the future, with a horizon.

Verification status is separate: it records whether editors have checked the claim against its sources.