# The Right to Exit

- [[pull]] [[governance]] [[freedom]]
- [[push]] [[hirschman]]

**The Right to Exit** is the ability for a participant to leave a system without losing their data, their connections, or their dignity. It is a fundamental check on power in any governance system.

## In the Agora
The Agora is built on the principle of **Data Sovereignty**.
*   Because you host your own content in your own [[git]] repository, you always possess the ultimate Right to Exit.
*   If the [[Agora]] server becomes "evil" (starts censoring, ads, etc.), you can simply stop pushing to it. You keep your garden.
*   You can take your garden and plug it into a *different* Agora (a fork of the server).

## Exit vs. Voice
Economist [[Albert Hirschman]] famously distinguished between:
*   **Exit:** Leaving the firm/state.
*   **Voice:** Staying and protesting/voting to change things.

The Agora maximizes **Voice** (via [[Agonism]] and contribution) but guarantees **Exit** (via federation and open protocols). A system that forbids Exit cannot truly hear Voice, because the participants are captives, not citizens.