---
summary: A reference index of democracy-related concepts.
title: Concepts
---

A reference collection of concepts relevant to open democracy — from foundational ideas to specific mechanisms and organisational forms.

These pages are discovery aids — brief orientations to help you find better sources, not authoritative explanations. Content comes from DOD member discussions and events where noted, and points outward to external sources for depth. DOD is nonpartisan and agnostic to any specific democratic model; inclusion of a concept here is not an endorsement.

## Democratic theory and critique

| Article | Summary |
|---|---|
| [Accountability Sink](accountability-sink.md) | Structural feature of organisations that absorbs consequences so no one can be held responsible — and why it matters for democratic design |
| [Cognitive Division of Labour](cognitive-division-of-labour.md) | Schumpeter and Gruen's concept: not everyone can have views on everything — democratic systems need mechanisms for navigating who decides what |
| [Collective Intelligence](collective-intelligence.md) | The capacity of a group to know or decide better than any individual — emergent property of democratic and deliberative processes; distinct from artificial intelligence |
| [Cybernetic Governance](cybernetic-governance.md) | Applying Stafford Beer's Viable System Model to diagnose and redesign governance — feedback loops, complexity, and adaptation |
| [Isegoria](isegoria.md) | Ancient Greek principle of equal political voice — and why elections undermine it while citizens' juries restore it |
| [Meta-Organisation](meta-organisation.md) | DOD's own description of itself — an organisation that monitors the reform landscape rather than running its own reform projects; distinct from the academic organisational-theory term |
| [Tribal Epistemology](tribal-epistemology.md) | When group identity determines what people believe rather than evidence — and the implications for democratic deliberation |
| [Vanguardism and Consultative Democracy](vanguardism.md) | The theory that a disciplined party can represent collective interests better than unmediated popular will — and how this produces a distinct model of democratic legitimacy |
| [Utopian Realpolitik](utopian-realpolitik.md) | A working disposition for democracy practitioners engaging across systems — holding idealistic goals while finding genuine common ground in good faith with systems that hold very different democratic values |
| [Buen Vivir (Sumak Kawsay)](buen-vivir.md) | Andean indigenous governance philosophy constitutionalised in Bolivia and Ecuador — reframes governance around collective wellbeing and ecological balance rather than GDP growth |
| [Democratic Confederalism](democratic-confederalism.md) | Bottom-up theory of governance rejecting the nation-state, building from the commune upward with gender co-governance as a structural principle — the operating framework of AANES/Rojava |

## Core democracy concepts

| Article | Summary |
|---|---|
| [What is Democracy?](what-is-democracy.md) | An overview of democracy as a concept and system |
| [Democracy](democracy.md) | Definition, types, and principles |
| [Direct Democracy](direct-democracy.md) | Citizens vote directly on laws and policies |
| [Representative Democracy](representative-democracy.md) | Citizens elect representatives to decide on their behalf |
| [Liberal Democracy](liberal-democracy.md) | Representative democracy with protected civil liberties |
| [Constitutional Democracy](constitutional-democracy.md) | Democracy governed by a constitution limiting state power |

## Democratic mechanisms

| Article | Summary |
|---|---|
| [Citizens' Assembly](citizens-assembly.md) | Randomly selected citizens deliberate on policy questions |
| [Consensus Mapping](consensus-mapping.md) | Surfacing areas of public agreement at scale rather than amplifying disagreement — used in Taiwan's vTaiwan process |
| [Issue-Based Direct Democracy](issue-based-direct-democracy.md) | The Flux Party's mechanism — voting on individual bills with delegable votes and political capital for abstaining |
| [Radical Transparency](radical-transparency.md) | Governance practice of making all processes and decisions public by default and in real time |
| [Liquid Democracy](liquid-democracy.md) | Voting system combining direct participation with transitive, revocable delegation |
| [Prediction Markets](prediction-markets.md) | Markets where participants bet on policy outcomes to aggregate dispersed knowledge — applied to democratic deliberation |
| [Sortition](sortition.md) | Selection of officials or jurors by random lot |
| [Mixed-Member Proportional Representation](mixed-member-proportional-representation.md) | Electoral system combining constituency seats with proportional top-up seats |
| [Preferential Voting](preferential-voting.md) | Ranked-choice / instant-runoff voting used to elect Australia's House of Representatives |
| [End-to-End Verifiable Voting System](end-to-end-verifiable-voting-system.md) | Voting systems where voters can verify their vote was counted correctly |
| [E-Government](e-government.md) | Digital delivery of government services and participation |
| [Organisations of World Citizens](organizations-of-world-citizens.md) | Global civic organisations and world citizenship concepts |

## Workplace and economic democracy

| Article | Summary |
|---|---|
| [Economic Democracy](economic-democracy.md) | Extending democratic principles into economic institutions — cooperative and mutual forms vs. shareholder-primacy structures |
| [Workplace Democracy](workplace-democracy.md) | Democratic decision-making structures within organisations |
| [Worker Cooperatives](worker-cooperatives.md) | Businesses owned and governed by their workers |
| [Community Business](community-business.md) | Enterprises owned and run by local communities |
| [Cooperative](cooperative.md) | Member-owned organisations governed on a one-member-one-vote basis |
| [Decentralized Autonomous Organization](decentralized-autonomous-organization.md) | Blockchain-based organisations governed by smart contracts |
| [Employee Ownership Trusts](employee-ownership-trusts.md) | Trust structures enabling employee ownership of businesses |
| [Employee Stock Ownership Plans](employee-stock-ownership-plans.md) | Plans giving employees ownership stakes in their employer |
| [Equity Compensation Plans](equity-compensation-plans.md) | Structures for sharing company equity with employees |
