The Shared Country

One river. Several governments. Who gets to decide?

Created by Yoav Duman · Solo perspective-taking edition · October 2026

Solo · self-paced · timing not yet measured · no advance preparation. One learner constructs plausible positions for National, Coast, Plain and Ridge, then the app applies Aven’s constitutional rules. No live group, facilitator or classmates are needed. This is a perspective-taking and institutional-reasoning exercise, not a model that predicts negotiations.

Try The Shared Country Learner guide

Where it fits

Use in introductory comparative politics units on federalism, decentralization, institutional design or territorial politics. Learners distinguish protected authority from revocable delegation, self-rule from shared rule, fiscal inequality from asymmetric powers, and regional autonomy from protection for people within a region.

Assign it in three steps

Share the activity link and ask students to choose For class. All work is individual. No roles or groups need to be assigned.
Ask them to read each government’s priorities, keep their own first position and construct a plausible four-government scenario. They must apply the rule to those inputs, including when no agreement leaves the current rule in place.
Have them save a readable PDF, HTML or text report and submit it through your existing course system. A JSON progress backup restores a session; it is not the assignment report.

Just exploring keeps writing optional. Both modes use the same institutional rules and decision menus. For class retains the original response requirements, first-answer seals and feedback sequence. Mode history remains visible in reports; an exploration does not silently become a fresh class attempt.

A possible sequence

Stage	Work to protect
Opening and A	Keep the opening judgment; choose a starting perspective; examine all government priorities.
B · River rule	Keep a first preference; construct four plausible government positions; apply the constitutional change threshold.
C · Flood	Apply the adopted rule to a new crisis; identify authorized actors and who bears the resulting cost.
D · Clinics	Separate money from control; construct a package ballot; explain a benefit and a cost.
E · Ridge and Mina	Map the recommended licensing office and propose a specific fair-assessment action.
Distinctions and F · Pelar	Keep initial transfer answers before the self-contained feedback check; explain revision or confirmation.
G · Final finding	Link a recorded result to a benefit and cost through the authority or consent rule.

Timing for this solo adaptation has not yet been measured. Set the endpoint and workload for your course, leave time for written explanations and add discussion after the individual work if useful.

The rules that do the work

B · River authority

Regional is the starting rule. The learner assigns one choice to each government: National, Regional or Joint. A change takes effect only if National and at least two regions choose the same changed option. Split support, abstention or a regional majority without National do not enact a change. Otherwise Regional remains. Regional crews operate the gates under every rule; decision authority is what changes.

C · Flood action

The relief channel is in Plain. Open floods 20 Plain farm plots and keeps 80 Coast homes dry. Hold keeps the plots dry and floods 80 Coast homes. Evacuation removes immediate injury risk. There is no compensation fund. Homes and plots are unlike losses; the counts do not establish a complete welfare comparison.

Under National, National alone authorizes Open. Under Regional, Plain alone can authorize it, including voluntarily helping Coast. Under Joint, Open requires National and at least two regions. National, Coast and Ridge can therefore authorize Open despite Plain’s objection. Without authorized Open, Hold results. The learner applies the existing rule rather than taking a new constitutional-change vote.

D · Clinic resources and control

Equal populations and similar basic needs; the same tax rate raises 8/5/2 because tax bases differ. The benchmark of five is a basic-budget estimate, not a legal entitlement or guarantee of care. The total stays fifteen. Flood losses do not change clinic funds. No extra money, compensation, borrowing or side deals.

Package	Coast / Plain / Ridge	Budget and staffing authority
Local · current	8 / 5 / 2	Regions
Pool	5 / 5 / 5	National
Equalize	5 / 5 / 5	Regions, public reports, binding three-unit Coast-to-Ridge transfer

The B change threshold applies again; otherwise Local remains. Coast has no extra veto. Equalize requires no later donor permission. Care delivery remains regional under every package. Equal budgets alone do not prove equal care.

E · A proposal, not an enacted change

Same sends Mina to National; Ridge only and All regions send her to Ridge. All regions also transfers licensing power to Coast and Plain. Her professional and job-language qualifications are unknown. Fair review, written reasons and independent appeal are required under every option; none guarantees a licence or job.

Feedback and assessment

Pelar’s current clinic authority is delegated because ordinary law can withdraw it. Its reform is asymmetric because North alone gains protected fishing authority. Protected island health policy shows self-rule; guaranteed island delegates in common lawmaking show shared rule. The learner keeps first answers, opens the check and explains any revision or confirmation.

Assess accurate authority mapping, use of government priorities, explicit tradeoffs and a mechanism connecting an institutional rule to a recorded result. In G, require one plausible benefit and cost of the B/C river result or D clinic package. Defaults are valid outcomes. E remains a recommendation. Do not reward a preferred degree of centralization or agreement for its own sake.

The app applies fixed rules and checks class-record completion. It does not grade the quality of reasoning or demonstrate that learning has occurred.

A ready-to-adapt assignment

Complete The Shared Country individually using For class. Choose a starting perspective, read the other government priorities and construct plausible positions for each government. Preserve your first answers before feedback. In your final finding, explain one benefit and one cost of a recorded river or clinic result, connecting them to who could decide or whose agreement was required. Save a readable PDF, HTML or text report, check it and upload it to this assignment. A JSON progress backup restores your session; it is not the submission report.

What this version can and cannot show

The learner supplies the governmental positions. These inputs are constructed scenarios, not observed behavior, generated classmates or independent evidence about negotiation. The fixed rules show what follows from specified choices. Different outcomes cannot establish that one institution always performs better. Use the priorities to challenge arbitrary inputs, and distinguish formal power from residents’ welfare.

Backups from the earlier live-group edition remain readable. Imported older records are marked in the report; their preserved decisions should not be treated as a new solo first attempt.

This solo edition adapts the original Shared Country cases and institutional rules. Live-group speaking cues and setup are not part of this version.

Saving, access and privacy

Responses begin in memory and remain on the learner’s device unless explicitly saved in that browser or downloaded. Nothing submits automatically. Save a JSON backup before changing devices or clearing browser data. The site has separate public-page visitor counting and ordinary hosting logs; responses are not sent to a student database.

Keyboard controls, labeled fields, readable reports and browser Print / Save as PDF are available. Keep “Created by Yoav Duman” when sharing.

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