Your Next Government?: From the Nation State to Stateless Nations

by Tom W. Bell

Overview

Governments across the globe have begun evolving from lumbering bureaucracies into smaller, more agile special jurisdictions - common-interest developments, special economic zones, and proprietary cites. Private providers increasingly deliver services that political authorities formerly monopolized, inspiring greater competition and efficiency, to the satisfaction of citizens-qua-consumers. These trends suggest that new networks of special jurisdictions will soon surpass nation states in the same way that networked computers replaced mainframes. In this groundbreaking work, Tom W. Bell describes the quiet revolution transforming governments from the bottom up, inside-out, worldwide, and how it will fulfill its potential to bring more freedom, peace, and prosperity to people everywhere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108547697
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/12/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Tom W. Bell earned his J.D. from the University of Chicago in 1993, then practiced law in Silicon Valley and Washington, DC before serving as a policy director at the Cato Institute. In 1998, he joined the faculty of Chapman University, Fowler School of Law, where he teaches all of the first-year common law courses and electives in high-tech and intellectual property law. Bell's prior publications include Intellectual Privilege: Copyright, Common Law, and the Common Good (2014). Through Archimediate LLC, Bell advises companies developing special economic zones on the design, installation, and support of legal systems.

Table of Contents

Introduction: from dinosaurs to chickens; Part I. Facts: 1.1. The most valuable thing in the world?; 1.2. Revolution, inside-out, bottom-up, world-wide; 1.3. Special jurisdictions in the United States; 1.4. Case study 1: Fordlandia; 1.5. Case study 2: Honduran REDs and ZEDEs; 1.6. Case study 3: Seasteads; Part II. Theory: 2.1. The center of the law; 2.2. Why consent to consent?; 2.3. Up the ladder of consent; 2.4. Forget it is a constitution; Part III. Practice: 3.1. Best practices in governing services; 3.2. Abolish governmental immunity; 3.3. Citizen courts; 3.4. From orphaned cities to shared communities; 3.5. Double democracy; 3.6. United States special economic zones (USSEZs); 3.7. Ulex: An Open Source Legal Operating System; 3.8. Stories of the sort ordinarily recounted over drinks; Conclusion: from smart governments, gold swans; Appendix 1: worldwide census of SEZs and similar zones; Appendix 2: economics of monopolies in governing services; Appendix 3: Ulex Open Source Legal Operating System Version 1.0 (2016).

Editorial Reviews

'Tom W. Bell is the expert in new legal systems for new governments, and his book provides a perfect combination of theory, practice, and enthusiasm to make competitive governance seem not only vital for human betterment, but also a fun adventure.' Brian Doherty, author of Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement

From the Publisher