How to Study & Dismantle Hierarchical Systems

An interactive guide to the Critical Framework from How to Build Municipalist Communes. Learn the eleven questions, the triadic control model, and how dependency displacement opens the path to freer social relations.

Explore the sections below

🔍 Why a Critical Framework?

Every serious project of social transformation needs a way to diagnose before it can prescribe. Hierarchical systems are often naturalised — presented as inevitable, efficient, or even benevolent. This framework gives you a systematic method to question that naturalisation and to locate where power actually operates.

The method is built around eleven interlinked questions. Used together, they help you map any hierarchical system — a workplace, a school, a state institution, a religious hierarchy, a family structure — and identify concrete points where dependency can be displaced.

Hierarchy is an imbalance of power where the elite, defined by the function of accumulating power, commands and the subordinate obeys. — From the book’s analysis of hierarchy

Elite and subordinate are not fixed identities of “good” or “bad” people. They are relational positions. Someone can be elite in one system and subordinate in another. The goal is not to purge individuals but to transform relations.

Use the navigation above to explore each part. The progress bar tracks how much of the framework you have opened.

📋 The Eleven Questions

Work through these in order when analysing a system. Each question builds on the last. Click any question to expand guidance.

1

Is this hierarchy legitimate?

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Start here. All hierarchical systems are to be assumed illegitimate by default. The burden of justification lies with those who claim authority. Unless the hierarchy can be shown to be temporary, situational, and exclusively beneficial to the subordinated, it fails the test.

💡 Ask: Who benefits from this arrangement remaining unquestioned? What would change if the hierarchy had to justify itself every day?

2

Who constitutes the elite within this hierarchical system?

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Identify the positions (not necessarily the persons) that accumulate and exercise power: decision-makers, rule-setters, controllers of resources or information. Elite status is defined by the function of accumulating power.

💡 Look for who can give binding orders, who controls budgets, who defines success and failure, who is rarely held accountable.

3

What specific forms of power does this elite accumulate and exercise?

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Power is not only economic. Map political, religious, patriarchal, ethnic/racialised, cultural/symbolic, epistemic (who gets to define knowledge), and other forms. A system may combine several.

💡 Money is one lever. Status, credentials, sacred authority, control of narrative, and access to force are others.

4

Who are positioned as subordinates within this hierarchy?

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Who must obey, who is measured against rules they did not make, who is spoken for rather than speaking? Subordination can be formal (job rank) or informal (gender, race, caste, age).

💡 Notice who is expected to be grateful, flexible, or silent. Who absorbs the costs when the system fails?

5

Does this hierarchy limit the abstraction of reality and include externalised subordinates?

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Some systems hide their subordinates outside the visible frame — overseas workers, future generations, non-human nature, informal carers. Ask what the system depends on that it does not acknowledge or reward.

💡 Follow the supply chain, the waste stream, and the unpaid labour. Who is missing from the organisational chart?

6

Which modes of domination are operational within the system?

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Domination has a recurring grammar: subject/object, command/obey, active/passive, presence/absence, rule-maker/rule-defined, and more. Identifying the specific modes helps you see how hierarchy is enacted moment by moment.

💡 See the “Modes of Domination” section for a fuller list. Try matching modes to everyday interactions in the system.

7

How does this hierarchy interplay with other hierarchical systems?

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Hierarchies reinforce one another. Workplace hierarchy intersects with gender, race, citizenship, and class. Mapping interlock prevents single-issue analysis that leaves the larger structure intact.

💡 Ask: If this hierarchy weakened, which others would prop it up? Which ones would also be shaken?

8

How does the triadic control model function to sustain and reproduce this hierarchy?

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Hierarchy is stabilised by three overlapping mechanisms: Dependency (control over needs), Consent / Hegemony (manufactured agreement), and Coercion (force when the others fail). Map how each operates in the system under study.

💡 Go to the Triadic Control section for a deeper interactive breakdown.

9

Which dependency nodes are currently under elite control?

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List the concrete needs and infrastructures the elite controls: wages, housing, credentials, information, food, energy, legal status, social belonging. These are the levers of domination.

💡 Be specific. “Money” is vague; “the payroll system and the threat of dismissal” is actionable.

10

Which dependency nodes require immediate displacement?

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Prioritise. Not everything can be moved at once. Which dependencies, if shifted from elite to communal control, would most expand autonomy and weaken the hierarchy’s grip?

💡 Survival needs (food, shelter, care) and coordination needs (information, decision-making) often rank high.

11

How can these dependency nodes be effectively displaced?

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This is the constructive turn. Displacement means transferring control of needs from centralised elite apparatuses to decentralised, accountable, communal structures — community land trusts, co-ops, mutual aid networks, municipal assemblies, local food systems, community energy, and more.

💡 Displacement is structural, not merely moral. It changes where people must turn when they need something essential.

⚖️ Legitimacy

Following Chomsky and the anarchist tradition: hierarchical systems are assumed illegitimate until justified. The claimant of authority bears the burden of proof. The subordinate retains the epistemic right to question.

“Does it follow that I reject all authority? Far from me such a thought. In the matter of boots, I refer to the authority of the bootmaker… But I allow neither the bootmaker nor the architect nor savant to impose his authority upon me… I recognise no infallible authority.” — Mikhail Bakunin, “What is Authority”

When can hierarchy be legitimate?

Only when it is all three of the following:

Temporary

Not a permanent status. The arrangement ends when the situation ends.

Situational

Tied to a specific context (emergency, specialised task), not a general right to command.

Exclusively beneficial to the subordinated

The subordinate is the primary beneficiary (e.g. a lifeguard, a surgeon in an operation, firefighters during evacuation).

Freely associated

Not produced by structural coercion (poverty, lack of alternatives). Exit and refusal must be real options.

When authority exceeds these bounds, it becomes domination. Most enduring hierarchical systems fail this test.

🔺 Triadic Control Model

Hierarchy is stabilised by three overlapping mechanisms. Click each to explore.

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Dependency

Control over survival, flourishing, and luxury needs

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Consent / Hegemony

Manufactured agreement via culture, education, media

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Coercion

Force, sanction, and threat when the others weaken

These three reinforce each other. Dependency makes consent easier to manufacture; consent reduces the need for visible coercion; coercion protects the conditions of dependency. Effective dismantling works on all three — especially by shifting dependency nodes into communal hands.

📐 Modes of Domination

Domination is not only an outcome; it is a recurring grammar of interaction. These modes appear across workplaces, states, families, schools, and other hierarchical systems. Click any mode to see concrete examples.

Subject → subordinate as object

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The elite acts; the subordinate is acted upon. Example: A manager restructures a team without consultation — workers are objects of the decision, not subjects of it. In colonial administration, populations are governed as objects of policy rather than agents of their own lives.

Commands → subordinate obeys

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One issues binding orders; the other complies. Example: Military hierarchy, or a boss assigning overtime with no genuine right of refusal. The relationship is defined by the expectation of obedience, not mutual agreement.

Active → subordinate as passive

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The elite initiates, designs, and drives; the subordinate receives and executes. Example: Curriculum designed by distant authorities while teachers and students are expected only to deliver and absorb. Or patients treated as passive recipients of expert decisions rather than partners in care.

Presence → subordinate as absence

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The elite is visible, named, and centred; the subordinate is background or invisible. Example: Official histories that list generals and politicians while omitting the labour of the many. Or a company about-page featuring executives while the workforce that produces value remains unnamed.

Speaks → subordinate is spoken for

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The elite claims the right to represent others’ interests and voices. Example: A politician or NGO spokesperson explaining “what the community wants” without that community holding the microphone. Or a parent permanently speaking over a child’s account of their own experience.

Decides → subordinate receives decisions

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Binding choices are made above; consequences are lived below. Example: Corporate closures announced to workers who had no vote. Or zoning and development decisions made by distant boards while residents absorb displacement and pollution.

Defines norms → subordinate is measured against them

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The elite sets the standard of the “good,” “professional,” or “normal”; others are graded by it. Example: Workplace “culture fit” defined by a dominant group. Or standardised testing that treats one cultural and class experience as the neutral measure of intelligence.

Retains individuality → subordinate becomes category

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Elites are treated as unique persons; subordinates are sorted into types. Example: “The CEO has a vision” versus “the workforce is resistant to change.” Or media that names powerful individuals while describing protesters only as a crowd or demographic.

Rule-maker → subordinate is rule-defined

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One side writes the rules; the other is constituted by them. Example: Immigration law that defines who counts as a legal person. Or platform terms of service written by corporations that users must accept to participate in social life.

Knows → subordinate is known about

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Epistemic hierarchy: the elite produces authorised knowledge; the subordinate is the object of study, surveillance, or diagnosis. Example: Experts defining a community’s “needs” from outside. Or workplace monitoring that knows more about a worker’s keystrokes than the worker is allowed to know about management decisions.

Gives → subordinate must be grateful

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Benefits are framed as gifts from above, producing debt and deference rather than rights. Example: Charity models that require recipients to display gratitude. Or an employer presenting a wage (the price of labour) as generosity that workers should thank them for.

Represents → subordinate is represented

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Others claim to stand in for the subordinate’s interests, often without ongoing accountability or recall. Example: Elected officials who cannot be mandated or recalled between elections. Or union leadership that negotiates without genuine rank-and-file control.

Owns / controls resources → subordinate depends

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Material dependency underwrites other modes. Example: Landlord–tenant relations where housing is held as private property for extraction. Or a company town where the employer controls jobs, shops, and housing — exit is formally free but materially punishing.

Evaluates → subordinate is evaluated

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The elite holds the right to judge performance, worth, and character; the subordinate is permanently under review. Example: Performance reviews that flow only downward. Or credit scores and algorithmic rankings that assess individuals who cannot assess the assessors in return.

Punishes / rewards → subordinate is disciplined

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Sanctions and incentives are controlled from above to shape behaviour. Example: School discipline systems, workplace write-ups and bonuses, or state welfare conditionality — all train compliance by linking survival or status to obedience.

Names & frames → subordinate is named and framed

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The power to define what the situation is — crisis or order, thug or protester, terrorist or freedom fighter. Example: Media and official language that frames poverty as individual failure, or resistance as disorder, while elite violence is named “security” or “policy.”

Recognising these patterns in daily life — meetings, classrooms, families, media, platforms — trains the eye for hierarchy even when it wears a friendly or efficient face. The goal is not endless accusation, but precise diagnosis so that dependency can be displaced and freer relations built.

🔄 Dependency Displacement

If elites dominate through control of life-ground dependencies, then emancipatory practice requires the gradual transfer of those dependencies from centralised elite apparatuses to decentralised, municipally accountable structures.

This is not a moral appeal to the powerful. It is a structural reconfiguration of material reliance.

Examples of displacement

Food

From corporate supply chains → community gardens, regional agro-coops, community kitchens

Land & Housing

From speculative markets → Community Land Trusts, cooperative housing

Energy

From utility monopolies → community solar, microgrids

Finance

From extractive banks → credit unions, mutual credit under communal control

Care

From privatised or unpaid burden → collective care hubs, shared childcare

Knowledge & Coordination

From corporate platforms → mesh networks, study circles, transparent assemblies

Each displaced node expands the space in which free association is materially possible — because exit and refusal become real options, not formal rights on paper.

The rest of the book develops the institutions (assemblies, co-ops, usufruct libraries, the irreducible minimum, and more) that make sustained displacement viable.

🧪 Try the Framework

Walk through a short guided application. Pick a system you know (a workplace, school, platform, or institution) and move step by step. No answers are stored — this is for your own clarity.

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Step 1 — Name the system

Choose one hierarchical system you participate in or observe. Write it down (or hold it in mind). Examples: your workplace, a university department, a social media platform, a religious institution, a municipal bureaucracy.

Framework drawn from Part One of How to Build Municipalist Communes by Mason Carter. This resource is a learning companion for diagnosis and strategic thinking — not a substitute for collective practice.