self-determination
Enable an AI agent to identify whose self-determination is at issue, assess their effective control over consequential choices, and identify actions that support or constrain that control.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read
Researched by: Codex
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to identify whose self-determination is at issue, assess their effective control over consequential choices, and identify actions that support or constrain that control.
Self-determination, in its collective political sense, is the principle and right of peoples to determine their political status and pursue their economic, social and cultural development freely.
It can be Identify the subject and decision domain before assessing a self-determination claim.; Compare expressed preferences, recognized authority and actual outcomes without treating them as equivalent.; Locate barriers to informed choice, meaningful refusal and implementation.; Check whether assistance or representation preserves the subject's control.; Surface conflicts between collective decisions and the participation or choices of affected members.; Propose support or procedural changes while leaving substantive choices with the identified subject..
Distinguishing features
Ask whether the subject can determine the relevant choice, rather than merely receive consultation or express a preference.
Ask whether a choice reflects the subject's own position; compliance with another actor's instruction is insufficient evidence.
Separate self-determination from self-sufficiency: receiving assistance does not by itself establish that another actor controls the decision.
Separate decision authority from success: an unsuccessful chosen action can still involve self-determination.
For collective cases, distinguish a representative's assertion from an evidenced process through which affected members shape the collective position.
Scope
+ Identification of the person or collectivity whose self-determination is being assessed
+ Matters over which that subject claims or exercises decision authority
+ Formation and expression of choices, including refusal and revision
+ Coercion, dependency, exclusion and practical barriers affecting effective choice
+ Representation and internal participation where a collectivity is the subject
+ Differences between asserted authority, available choices and implemented decisions
- Self-determination theory as a complete psychological framework
- Sovereignty, statehood, secession and territorial status as independently modelled institutions or outcomes
- Clinical assessments of decision-making capacity
- Consent procedures for particular medical, contractual or research interventions
- General accounts of free will, moral responsibility or political legitimacy
- Books, declarations and other works that discuss self-determination
Characteristics
- Sense of self-determination
- personal; collective; explicitly connected personal and collective; unresolved Prevents evidence or criteria from one sense being silently applied to another.
- Determining subject
- Person or collectivity, with any disputed membership or competing identification recorded An assessment requires clarity about whose choices and affairs are involved.
- Decision domain
- Personal life direction; care and support; cultural affairs; political arrangements; economic affairs; other specified domain Self-determination can differ across matters and should not be inferred globally from a single decision.
- Decision authority
- Asserted; acknowledged by specified actors; disputed; exercised; overridden; unknown; multiple states may coexist Distinguishes claims about authority from its recognition and practical exercise.
- Effective choice conditions
- Evidence concerning information access, feasible alternatives, refusal, coercion and implementation support; unknowns recorded separately A nominal opportunity to choose may not provide meaningful control.
- Representation mandate
- Representative linked to represented subject, authorization process, decision scope and challenge or replacement mechanism Allows an agent to distinguish supported representation from an actor substituting its own preferences.
- Choice realization
- Not expressed; expressed; implementation pending; implemented; obstructed; revised; withdrawn; unknown Tracks whether expressed choices affect what happens and whether later changes remain possible.
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 5 bundles · 9 layers · 15 findings · 23 questions.
Subject and sense Establishes who is determining what and which meaning of self-determination is being used.
Personal agency and collective political claims require distinct evidence even when they share the same label.
Personal or collective
Separates individual choice from claims made by or for a collectivity.
Identify the determining subject
Record the subject explicitly and treat uncertainty about the intended sense as unresolved.
- Does self-determination refer here to a person, a collectivity, or an explicitly described relationship between them? definition
- Which registry evidence or contextual source supports that interpretation? provenance
Membership and standing
Identifies who belongs to the subject and who claims to speak for it.
Collective boundaries
For collective cases, record competing membership definitions and the basis of any representative's mandate; mark this layer inapplicable to a person acting directly.
- Who is included or excluded from the collectivity, and who disputes those boundaries? boundary
- How was the actor speaking for the collectivity authorized, and for which decisions? provenance
Authorship of choice Examines whether the expressed position can be attributed to the subject and under what conditions it was formed.
An agent must distinguish a subject's choice from acquiescence, imposed preferences or unsupported interpretation.
Formation and expression
Records how preferences were developed and communicated, including accessible or supported expression.
Trace the expressed position
Link the stated choice to the subject's expression or a documented interpretive process, retaining disagreements and uncertainty.
- What did the subject express, through which communication method or collective procedure, and when? provenance
- What evidence distinguishes the subject's position from a supporter's or representative's interpretation? boundary
Pressure and refusal
Examines coercion, conditional support and the consequences of declining offered options.
Ability to decline
Record whether refusal is practically possible and whether threats or dependencies shape the apparent choice.
- What would happen if the subject refused, delayed or selected an option opposed by a more powerful actor? measurement
- Which pressures or support conditions could be changed to improve the subject's freedom to decide? action
Authority and contested affairs Maps the matters being determined, the authority claimed and overlapping claims.
Self-determination concerns control over specified affairs, and its boundaries cannot be inferred from the label alone.
Reach of authority
Specifies the decisions covered and distinguishes asserted, recognized and exercised authority.
Map decision control
Identify who can propose, decide, veto and implement the relevant choice.
- Which specific matters does the subject seek to determine, and which remain under another actor's control? boundary
- What evidence shows who actually decides or overrides decisions, beyond formal statements of authority? measurement
Overlapping subjects
Makes conflicts between subjects visible, including dissent within collective decisions.
Record competing claims
Keep each affected subject's claim distinct instead of treating one actor's account as a settled boundary.
- Whose personal or collective choices would be constrained by implementing this claim? boundary
- What process allows affected members, dissenters or overlapping collectivities to contest the decision or its scope? action
Effective exercise and revision Examines whether choices are feasible, implemented and open to reconsideration.
Expressed preference alone does not establish effective control, and an earlier choice does not settle later preferences.
Feasible options and support
Examines the practical alternatives available and the assistance needed to pursue them.
Assess practical choice
Distinguish formally offered options from options the subject can understand, access and carry out.
- Which alternatives are practically available given the subject's information, resources, accessibility needs and dependencies? measurement
- What assistance would expand feasible choices while preserving the subject's authority over the selection? action
Implementation and reconsideration
Connects expressed decisions to outcomes and records opportunities to revise them.
Follow the choice through
Track implementation, obstruction and subsequent changes without assuming that satisfaction or success proves self-determination.
- How does the implemented outcome compare with the subject's expressed decision, and who accounts for any divergence? measurement
- How can the subject revise the decision, challenge an override or replace a representative, and what limits apply? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Check these first
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- The registry supplies no sense or definition. This description provisionally covers the collective political concept; the INF.MED domain and batch context do not establish whether a particular work was intended.
- The meaning of 'peoples' and the scope of self-determination outside colonial contexts are contested; claims about a specific dispute require research.
- Instrument names and article references are recalled without source consultation; the listed declarations and treaties have different legal statuses.
- Which of these check these first hold for the sense of self-determination this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Kinds and varieties
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Internal self-determination through participation in government and arrangements for self-government
- External self-determination concerning a people's international political status
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of self-determination this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- United Nations Charter, Article 1(2): identifies respect for the self-determination of peoples as a basis for friendly relations among nations.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, common Article 1: recognize the right of all peoples to self-determination; adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
- United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV): Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.
- United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2625 (XXV): Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States.
- United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Articles 3 and 4: addresses self-determination and autonomy or self-government; adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of self-determination this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Decolonization and determination of the political status of colonial territories
- Negotiation of autonomy and self-government arrangements
- Indigenous peoples' claims concerning governance and development
- Debates about independence, territorial status and political participation
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of self-determination this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Treating self-determination as an automatic entitlement to unilateral secession in every setting
- Assuming without examination which population constitutes the relevant people
- Treating a coerced or exclusionary vote as a free expression of collective political will
- Ignoring minority rights within the population seeking self-government
- Conflating collective political self-determination with individual autonomy or psychological self-determination theory
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of self-determination this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Institutional arrangements differ across jurisdictions, including territorial autonomy, federal arrangements and Indigenous self-government.
- Decolonization, Indigenous rights and secession disputes engage different legal and historical contexts.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of self-determination this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.
- Sovereignty - Sovereignty concerns supreme or independent political authority; self-determination concerns a people's freedom to determine its political status and development.
- Secession - Secession separates territory from an existing state; self-determination can also be exercised through arrangements within a state.
- Autonomy - Autonomy is a capacity or arrangement for self-government; it can provide a means of exercising self-determination.
- Individual self-determination - Individual self-determination concerns a person's direction of their own life; collective political self-determination concerns peoples.
- Self-determination theory - Self-determination theory is a psychological theory of motivation associated with autonomy, competence and relatedness, rather than the collective political right.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of self-determination this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
What the second pass must settle
- Does the registry intend personal self-determination, collective political self-determination, a named work, or another sense, and what explains its INF / INF.MED placement?
- Does an existing Vercy world model already own this concept or either principal sense, requiring a link rather than another publication?
- Which researched criteria can distinguish coercion from ordinary influence without treating dependence or supported decision-making as automatic absence of self-determination?
- For collective cases, how should disputed membership, representation and internal dissent be assessed without presupposing the legitimacy of one claimant?
- Which contextual standards should govern claims about decision authority and permissible limits, and where must competing interpretations remain unresolved?