# kaal:claim:3782214-006

**Claim.** Declining to adopt explicit or formal rules is itself a governance choice, and it defaults to rule by might; since might in these systems is defined by wealth, the resulting order is oligarchy.

**Type.** failure  **Support.** argued

**Holds when.**

- platforms where power tracks token holdings or computing power

**Source quote.**

> Choosing no explicit or formal rules is still a governance choice. That choice de- faults to the prehistoric rule of might makes right. Since might is defined by wealth, they've chosen oligarchy.

**From.** Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, *Decentralized Governance* (2021), Chapter 6. Governance, page 5

**Cite as.** Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Governance (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782214

**Verify.** sha256 of source PDF `ba892bb200c1455447c0014f5067a501a93ea9ec413c31942d95952eb3bdfd9d` at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wulfkaal/Academic-Papers/main/papers/pdf/Calcaterra%20and%20Kaal%20-%202021%20-%20Decentralized%20Governance.pdf

**Failure mode.** default oligarchy  (family: plutocratic-capture)

**Topics.** governance-design, tokenomics

**Keywords.** oligarchy, informal-governance, token-voting, protocol-governance

**Canonical form.** This markdown file is the canonical hashed representation of the claim. Its sha256 is the content hash used for attestation.