Nicker on 11/9/2012 at 03:17
Honduras is embarking on an experiment in development, the (
http://www.economist.com/node/21541392) Charter City.
These cities will have a very large amount of autonomy and are intended to attract foreign investment by creating a variety of relaxed regulatory zones. They will have streamlined decision making and local focus.
To begin with they will be run by Governors, overseen by a Transparency Commission, intended to make sure the Governors aren't flaunting certain basic moral / ethical boundaries. Once a city has stabilised (and formed an identity or perhaps a brand), citizens will be able to elect a local executive / legislative committee.
The main "democratic" input is supposed to be voting with your feet. People and companies will migrate to the cities which offer the most attractive regulatory environment.
It's a fascinating prospect with so many possibilities, good and bad.
Would you move to a Charter City? What rules would seal the deal for you?
LarryG on 11/9/2012 at 04:40
Wild idea. It is so out of left field that I don't know what to say about it.
SubJeff on 11/9/2012 at 07:03
I'd go. Sensible tax law, health service, approach to unemployment, freedom of speech and individual rights would do it for me.
Of course the city would need to look nice too, and not be somewhere that rains all the time :p
june gloom on 11/9/2012 at 07:20
I'd want something more temperate than Honduras, but I'd be all over that.
faetal on 11/9/2012 at 09:56
I'm not 100% sure about relaxed regulations. Capitalism works best when it is strongly regulated, since monopolies stifle innovation and dynamism. Also, some services don't respond well to the free market - healthcare provision transport and energy for example.
Ostriig on 11/9/2012 at 11:57
Why does this sounds like the setup for a cyberpunk plot? I can't yet make up my mind on whether this is an idea I'd love or an idea I'd love from a distance.
SubJeff on 11/9/2012 at 12:18
Quote Posted by Ostriig
Why does this sounds like the setup for a cyberpunk plot?
You are doing nothing to dissuade me.
Nicker on 11/9/2012 at 15:14
Quote Posted by Ostriig
Why does this sounds like the setup for a cyberpunk plot?
That was pretty much my reaction (I am not so ashamed to say now). Trying to parse the reality is brain hurting but the story potential is grande.
But doing an end run around all the details, my cynical suspicion is that the criminals and the wealthy will just twist the ideological framework around their fingers until it's another opportunity to bleed the peasants and suck the local ecology dry. That's been pretty much the fate of every __ology and ___ism that has ever been invented.
Kuuso on 11/9/2012 at 19:16
If nothing else, the US will fuck it up somehow.
The biggest problem I see is the poor. They can't vote with their feet and creation of city states could very well end up with absolutely poverty in shitty ones, whereas the rich hole up in their own places. An interesting prospect nonetheless.
Yakoob on 12/9/2012 at 03:58
An interesting idea, and one I think that can go in promising direction given today's mass communication abilities. Back in yee old days, the way of charter cities was that of a rich ass noble lord / prince / king owning some land and people around them, without much in his way to do wtf he wanted aside from other similar citystates/kingdoms invading the shit out of it. But with today's internet and media, as well as decrease in territorial wars (not true in all places of the world, like Africa, but I dont think Honduras suffers that problem much), this could work very differently. I mean, imagine going back to feudal days of autonomous, but united city-states, but with each city hooked up to the country's GovernmnetNet™ influencing federal decisions. It's similar to US and its 50 states, but imagine it on a city level.
This would be a diversity and democratic heaven... or an unmanageable, divided and quarreling clusterfuck.
