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<div id="pullquote">Democratic Mediums is a directory of patterns for decision, deliberation, and noise.</div>
This is an early-stage project that is mostly incomplete. Browse some sample entries: [Bureaucracy](mediums/bureaucracy.md), [Condorcet](mediums/condorcet.md), [Delegation](mediums/delegation.md), [Ritual](mediums/ritual.md), [Sortition](mediums/sortition.md).
This is an early-stage project that is mostly incomplete. Browse some sample entries: [Bureaucracy](mediums/bureaucracy.md), [Condorcet](mediums/condorcet.md), [Delegation](mediums/delegation.md), [Ownership](mediums/ownership.md), [Ritual](mediums/ritual.md), [Sortition](mediums/sortition.md).

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# Ownership
<!-- brief summary of the medium, no more than a handful of sentences
Ownership is an umbrella term for a varying series of legal rights over particular entities. In the case of private corporate entities, ownership is a mechanism for claiming and clarifying governance rights.
(delete these comments as you fill in the sections) -->
**Input:** Corporate entity, specified rights of ownership
**Input:** <!-- what is required to use it? -->
**Output:** <!-- what results does it produce? -->
**Output:** Specified owner involvement in corporate governance
## Background
<!-- brief historical reference points -->
Modern corporate ownership emerged during the rise of colonial and industrial economies, as a means of managing the complex financial arrangements necessary to capitalize those endeavors.
Lawyers frequently refer to ownership as a "bundle of rights," suggesting that it is not a fixed or stable phenomenon but one that varies based on design and context.
## Feedback loops
### Sensitivities
<!-- what does this medium capture especially well? -->
* Clarifies in precise legal terms the governance claims of owners
* Typically organizes influence according to stake in the entity to prevent free-riding
### Oversights
<!-- what does this medium overlook? -->
* Does not recognize the voices of important non-owning stakeholders
* May obscure important externalities, such as social and environmental considerations
* Inapplicable to non-ownable entities, like nonprofit organizations, information commons, and public-sector resources
## Implementations
### Communities
<!-- what are some real-world examples in practice? -->
* The [cooperative business tradition](https://www.ica.coop/en/cooperatives/what-is-a-cooperative) tends to employ ownership rights on a one-person-one-vote basis, rather than the one-share-one-vote model of most other corporate practice
### Tools
<!-- what software, methodologies, or organizations are available to facilitate implementation -->
* [Encode](https://encode.org/) offers "integrations of proven models, legal rules, and methodologies for fully distributing authority and ownership in a purpose-driven business"
* [Upstock](https://upstock.io/) "creates tools and shares knowledge that aligns founders, investors, and team members" through equity compensation
## Further resources
<!-- where should people look first if they want to learn more? -->
* Chassagnon, V., & Hollandts, X. (2014). "[Who Are the Owners of the Firm: Shareholders, Employees, or No One?](https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137413000301)" _Journal of Institutional Economics_, 10 (1), 4769.
* Hansmann, H. (1996). _The Ownership of Enterprise_. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
* Kelly, M. (2012). _Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution_. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.