Organizational CaseClaim Cited
Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed sets an anarchist commons on Anarres beside the property, wealth, and state power of Urras. The comparison shows both the capability of mutual aid and the return of hierarchy through scarcity, work assignment, reputation, and conformity when a society abolishes formal rulers but does not make informal power easy to name or contest.
What forms of power remain after private property and formal government have been abolished?
Organizational CaseClaim Cited
The Expanse's fictional political system makes infrastructure into constitutional power: Earth, Mars, and the Belt occupy unequal positions because gravity, air, water, transport, labor, and military capacity shape what each population can demand. Formal agreements repeatedly fail when they ignore material dependence, while legitimate grievance remains vulnerable to leaders who convert representation into factional command.
How do material dependencies become political authority even when formal institutions promise equality?