The Q-ARCH Vector — Five Dimensions, Two Ladders
Q-ARCH rates an actor on the C-E-S-A-G vector across five dimensions. Four dimensions compose the two ladders - intelligence production and decision authority - and the fifth, the influence gap, is a penalty that guards the boundary between the two, preventing intelligence from quietly becoming decision. Rate each dimension; the console places the actor on the 2×2 matrix and names its quadrant. Select a dimension to read it.
Method & Framework
The dual ladder
Q-ARCH is THE Q AGENCY's rating architecture. It rests on a strict ontological distinction between two kinds of actor in the intelligence-based economy: quaternary actors, who produce intelligence, analysis and IP (researchers, think tanks, R&D firms, AI labs), and quinary actors, who exercise final decision authority. The two are rated on separate ladders - the Q4 intelligence ladder and the Q5 authority ladder - because conflating them is the central governance hazard of the age: automated or advisory systems accreting decision power they were never constituted to hold.
The C-E-S-A-G vector
Each actor carries a five-dimension Q-Score vector:
- C - Coherence (D1, intelligence ladder): internal consistency and integration of the actor's intelligence output.
- E - Epistemic validity & rigor (D2, intelligence ladder): the soundness of method - prioritised above all other factors in the quaternary rating.
- S - Salience under mandate (D3, authority ladder): relevance and fitness of decision to the actor's actual mandate.
- A - Accountability (D4, authority ladder): the degree to which the actor bears the consequences of its decisions.
- G - Influence gap (D5, penalty): the distance between the influence an actor exerts and the authority it legitimately holds - a penalty, not a credit.
The matrix & the gate
The intelligence score (mean of C and E) and the authority score (mean of S and A) place the actor in one of four quadrants: Operational (low–low), Intelligence Producer (high intelligence, low authority), Decision Authority (low intelligence, high authority), and the sovereign corner - high on both, sub specie quinariae. A hard gate fires when the influence gap is large: an actor exerting decision-like influence without the accountability to match is flagged for influence creep, regardless of how high its other scores run. Validity cannot buy authority; the gate is what keeps the ladders distinct.
Relation to the suite
Q-ARCH is the rating architecture; Q-Monad is its unit of analysis (the accountable decision unit the authority ladder measures). Together they underlie THE Q AGENCY's Q-Rating methodology. Illustrative anchors; not a rating.