The Architecture of Us: Social Group Scaling, Federation, and the Governance Structures Humans Already Know How to Build

Alex Applebee and A. D. Masters

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Author's Note

This paper exists because of 14 goals. Not policy proposals — prevention requirements. Each one traces to a system that broke a real person.

Goal 1 (direct democracy) (direct democracy) says fire all politicians. You vote on everything. The Swiss have been doing it for 178 years. Goal 2 (22-hour work week) (22-hour work week) says 22-hour work weeks — because when you give people back 20 hours, they have time to actually govern their own communities. Goal 3 (free all prisoners) (free all prisoners) says free all prisoners, because Norway proved that the person in the cage and the person who put them there are the same person born in a different postcode. Goal 5 (replace police with community response) (replace police with community response) says fire all police, because the CAHOOTS model has been running for 35 years with zero people killed. Goal 13 ($29 emergency ring) ($29 emergency ring) says a $29 ring — press it, your people come in 60 seconds, not an ambulance in 14 minutes.

Every one of these goals requires a governance structure. Not a government — a governance structure. The difference is the direction of authority. In a government, decisions flow down from representatives to constituents. In a governance structure built on federation, decisions flow up from communities to delegates who can be recalled at any time.

This paper asks: what does the evidence actually say about how humans organise? Not the theory. Not the TED talk version. The evidence. From primatology, anthropology, organisational psychology, and — most importantly — from communities that are doing it right now.

The answer is not complicated. It has been operating for 60,000 years in Aboriginal Australia, for 500 years in Hutterite colonies, for 70 ye