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.