How to Read an Institutional Map
A walk through the relationship explorer using a fictional republic — what the boxes and arrows mean, and what a diagram like this can and cannot tell you.
Constitutions are usually read as text: articles, clauses, schedules. But much of what they establish is relational — who chooses whom, who answers to whom, who can overrule whom. A diagram makes those relations visible at a glance, at the cost of flattening everything else.
This atlas demonstrates the site’s relationship explorer with Examplia, a fictional country invented for the purpose. Nothing below describes a real state.
The map
Each box is an institution; its colour marks the branch it belongs to. Each arrow is a relationship, read from subject to object. Select a box — click it, or move to it with Tab and press Enter — to see its role and connections. Following a connection in the side panel moves the focus along the arrow.
The Republic of Examplia: who chooses, controls and checks whom
Select an institution to see what it does and how it connects to the others. Arrows read from subject to object: “the Electorate elects the National Assembly”.
Note: Examplia is a fictional country invented for this demonstration. Its institutions and relationships describe no real state.
Loading the interactive diagram… A complete text version follows below.
Loading the interactive diagram… A complete text version follows below.
Text version of this diagram
Citizens
Where authority originates.
- Electorate
- All adult citizens registered to vote.
- elects National Assembly
- elects President
- elects Provincial Councils
Legislature
Makes law and holds the government to account.
- National Assembly
- The single-chamber national legislature.
- holds to account Prime Minister & Cabinet
Executive
Governs and administers.
- President
- Directly elected head of state with limited, mostly formal powers.
- appoints Prime Minister & Cabinet
- appoints justices of Supreme Court
- Prime Minister & Cabinet
- Head of government and the ministers who collectively direct policy.
- directs Ministries
- Ministries
- Permanent departments that carry out government policy.
- fund Provincial Councils
Judiciary
Interprets law and settles disputes.
- Supreme Court
- Highest court; final interpreter of the Examplian constitution.
- reviews laws passed by National Assembly
- Judicial Appointments Board
- Independent panel that shortlists and recommends judges.
- recommends judges to President
Independent bodies
Constitutional bodies insulated from day-to-day politics.
- Electoral Commission
- Runs national and provincial elections and keeps the voter register.
- runs elections for National Assembly
- runs elections for Provincial Councils
- Auditor-General
- Audits public spending and reports findings to the legislature.
- audits Ministries
- reports to National Assembly
- Central Bank
- Sets monetary policy with operational independence.
- reports to National Assembly
Local government
Elected authorities for provinces.
- Provincial Councils
- Elected councils responsible for local services in each province.
Reading the arrows
Three kinds of relationship carry most of the structure:
- Selection — elects, appoints, recommends. These show where each institution’s authority comes from. Trace them upward from a box and see whether you reach the electorate. In this simplified model several independent bodies have no incoming selection arrow at all: the data simply doesn’t say who appoints them — exactly the kind of gap a researched atlas has to fill.
- Direction — directs, funds. These show who sets the agenda for whom.
- Accountability — holds to account, reviews, audits, reports to. These are the checks. In Examplia, the National Assembly is the busiest node for incoming accountability arrows.
A useful exercise is to pick any institution and ask: who chose it, and who can check it? If either answer is “no one”, the diagram has found something worth investigating.
What a diagram leaves out
An arrow labelled appoints hides nearly everything interesting: how candidates are found, whether the choice can be refused, how long the appointment lasts, and what happens in practice rather than on paper. A careful atlas therefore treats the diagram as an index into the text, not a replacement for it. Each node can carry sources, and the explanation around the diagram does the real work.
Reusing the explorer
The diagram is driven entirely by a data file, src/data/graphs/examplia.json, validated at build time. A new atlas needs only a new data file and one line of MDX:
import RelationshipExplorer from '@/components/viz/RelationshipExplorer.astro';
<RelationshipExplorer graph="my-graph" initial="some-node" />The data format, layout rules and accessibility behaviour are documented in docs/CONTENT_AUTHORING.md.