August, 2007

A Stock-Taking

I’d like to thank Bruce Benson, Dani Rodrik, and Randy Holcombe for participating in this discussion and for offering their insightful comments. By way of concluding, I will offer a few final remarks that I hope tie together several of the threads of commentary that followed my opening essay.
I want to highlight four major […]

Read: A Stock-Taking

One More Try: Anarchical Policy Analysis

It seems that Randy is more confused than ever (and I have known him for over 30 years!). He writes: “I completely agree with everything Bruce said. So, what is the relevance of anarchy? Pete and Bruce hold it up as an ideal end point, and at that point all prison services would […]

Read: One More Try: Anarchical Policy Analysis

The Relevance of Anarchy, Again

I’ve read through Bruce’s and Pete’s responses to my comments — I admit I was trying to be provocative when I wrote them — and I agree with everything both of them had to say. But, here’s what I was getting at when I made those comments, and I think my points remain valid.
Bruce […]

Read: The Relevance of Anarchy, Again

Clarifying Matters

Randy says that “that path” I “advocate toward anarchy sounds like Reagan Republicanism.” I must admit, I’m completely befuddled by this remark.
On the one hand, I don’t know what is “Reagan Republican” about saying that government should not exist. And on the other, I have not, at least to my knowledge, suggested any “path toward […]

Read: Clarifying Matters

Privatization versus Contracting Out

It seems odd to be debating Randy in this way since, as he noted, his office is just one floor below mine. However, it is Saturday and we actually live a couple of miles from each other, making it costly to talk face-to-face. Furthermore, when we do talk face to face, I apparently […]

Read: Privatization versus Contracting Out

The Road to Anarchy

Pete says if he could do it today, he’d completely eliminate government in the United States, and that we’d be better off stateless than we are today. Then, in answer to how we get there from here he talks about shrinking the size of government, presumably continuing until it shrinks all the way to […]

Read: The Road to Anarchy

Anarchy as a Policy Goal

Bruce supports the academic study of anarchy by saying, “By knowing where you would like to end up, you are likely to be able to make better marginal decisions along the road, even if the destination is never reached.” Then he presents a policy example that, as I see it, does not support that […]

Read: Anarchy as a Policy Goal

Anarchy Q & A

Randy poses a few interesting questions for me, as does Rodrik in his last remarks. I’ll do my best to answer them:
Q: Pete, do you think that if Somalia remains in its stateless condition that it will emerge from poverty to prosperity?
A: I think that the greatest sources of instability and retrogression Somalia has […]

Read: Anarchy Q & A

Anarchical Policy Analysis

I want to offer a response to Randy’s last post. It really follows on an earlier post where he stated “many of our fellow citizens favor further state expansion. But, if Leeson and Benson want anarchy, how can they get there?” Starting with this question, Randy ends up concluding that “regardless of whether the […]

Read: Anarchical Policy Analysis

The Relevance of Anarchy

One interesting thing about this entire exchange is that it was nominally organized as a discussion about anarchy, proclaiming “anarchy unbound,” and yet from the beginning anarchy has had little to do with the discussion. Leeson’s opening essay discussed actual stateless situations in a few poor countries, and Dani Rodrik responded by noting, “There […]

Read: The Relevance of Anarchy

The Crux of the Matter

I find Leeson’s latest response very encouraging, because it actually shows that we largely agree on the underlying issues—even though we remain very far apart in the conclusions we draw.
Thus, Leeson accepts that self-enforcing agreements are imperfect, while I accept that governments are imperfect. We agree that national courts are inadequate in enforcing international […]

Read: The Crux of the Matter

Polycentric Governance*

Dani Rodrik writes that “The problem with self-enforcing agreements is that they do not scale up.” I want to make a few interrelated points about this, as it often is the “market failure” argument given to justify a state when I confront people with evidence that what Pete Leeson has referred to as anarchy […]

Read: Polycentric Governance*

Rebuttal to Rodrik

At the risk of sounding “doctrinaire” again, I would like to respond to Rodrik’s criticisms. In order of his points:
1. I am willing to admit that signaling is not perfect. Gains from trade can be left unexploited through this mechanism. However, (a) this does not mean that self-enforcing mechanisms cannot be scaled up, […]

Read: Rebuttal to Rodrik