  This thesis addresses the problem of providing trusted individuals with
confidential information about other individuals, in particular, granting
access to databases of personal records using the World-Wide Web. It proposes
an access rights management system for distributed databases which aims to
create and implement organisation structures based on the wishes of the owners
and of demands of the users of the databases. The dissertation describes how
current software components could be used to implement this system; it
re-examines the theory of collective choice to develop mechanisms for
generating hierarchies of authorities; it analyses organisational processes for
stability and develops a means of measuring the similarity of their
hierarchies.
