Community-Based Society

A social, economic, and political model where the primary unit of organization, identity, and decision-making is the community—a cohesive group bound by geography, shared culture, mutual aid, or common purpose. This society is structured from the bottom-up, with neighborhoods, villages, or intentional communities holding sovereign authority over their local resources, social norms, and governance. The broader "society" exists as a confederation or network of these autonomous communities, cooperating for large-scale projects but retaining local control. It prioritizes social bonds, ecological sustainability, and collective well-being over individualism and centralized state or corporate power.

Example: The vision of a Community-Based Society is embodied in Murray Bookchin's Libertarian Municipalism, where democratically run town assemblies would form confederations, replacing the nation-state. Real-world glimpses include the Zapatista autonomous municipalities in Chiapas, Mexico, where Indigenous communities govern themselves through local assemblies, collectively owning land and operating their own schools, clinics, and justice systems.

by Dumu The Void February 5, 2026

Commune-Based Society

A specific, radical form of community-based society where the commune is not just a social unit but a fully integrated political and economic entity. In this model, the commune collectively owns and manages all property and means of production within its territory. Work is organized communally, resources are distributed based on need, and all members participate in direct democratic decision-making. Society is a voluntary federation of such self-sufficient, egalitarian communes. It is the structural goal of many anarcho-communists and utopian socialists, rejecting both the market and the state.

*Example: The theoretical endpoint of a Commune-Based Society is often illustrated by the short-lived Paris Commune of 1871, which aimed to turn Paris into such a collective entity. A modern small-scale example is the Twin Oaks Intentional Community in Virginia, which operates as a secular, income-sharing commune, though it exists within a larger capitalist state rather than as a federated societal model.*

by Dumu The Void February 5, 2026