Chris
02-26-2014, 09:51 PM
I recently read about this in Hoppe's The Great Fiction: Property, Economy, Society and the Politics of Decline, where he looks at the advantages of private law along these lines.
What Is Polycentric Law? (http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/what-is-polycentric-law#axzz2uTnqWccp)
Do you like having options when you look for a new bank, dry cleaner, or veterinarian? Of course you do. You want to find the service that will best satisfy your particular demands, after all, and you know that when banks, cleaners, and vets have to compete they have a powerful incentive to make you happy. A monopoly, in contrast, can take its customers for granted.
Polycentric law simply extends that observation from commercial services to government ones. Just as competition makes life better for those who seek banking, cleaning, and pet care services, it can benefit those seeking fair and efficient legal systems. Competition helps consumers and citizens alike.
Polycentric law regards the legal services that governments provide—defining rules, policing their application, and settling disputes—as a ripe field for competition. When a government claims a monopoly in the law, it tends to neglect its subjects' needs. In a polycentric system, however, providers of legal services care more about what consumers want. They have to, if they don't want to go out of business.
Our Polycentric World
But won't competition between legal services lead to chaos? Evidently not. We already live in a world that offers us a degree of choice between the sorts of rules we live under. Polycentric law simply takes note of that fact, sees the good in it, and argues for more of the same....
From Plain Old Law to Polycentric Law
To fully understand the extent of polycentric law, you have to understand the nature of law itself. Legal philosopher Lon Fuller aptly described it as "the enterprise of subjecting human conduct to the governance of rules." So described, the law is not just a service provided by public organizations. It also issues from private sources such as homeowners' associations, businesses, religions, clubs, and myriad other organizations, all of which subject their members' conduct to the governance of rules....
For More Polycentricity
We already live in a somewhat polycentric world. Except when they completely imprison their subjects, governments already compete against each other for financial and human capital. In the long run, as a consequence, governments that fail to supply adequate legal services tend to end up poor and unpopulated. Alas for consumers of governing services, though, that “long run” can last for generations. For governments to become better, faster, they must face more competition....
From a Good World to a Better One
Far from a mere theoretical ideal, polycentric law already shapes our world. We need only appreciate its latent power and invite more of the same. Once more fully realized, polycentric law can give consumers of the law the same benefit that free and open competition already gives to the consumers of banking, cleaning, and veterinary care: excellent consumer service.
What Is Polycentric Law? (http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/what-is-polycentric-law#axzz2uTnqWccp)
Do you like having options when you look for a new bank, dry cleaner, or veterinarian? Of course you do. You want to find the service that will best satisfy your particular demands, after all, and you know that when banks, cleaners, and vets have to compete they have a powerful incentive to make you happy. A monopoly, in contrast, can take its customers for granted.
Polycentric law simply extends that observation from commercial services to government ones. Just as competition makes life better for those who seek banking, cleaning, and pet care services, it can benefit those seeking fair and efficient legal systems. Competition helps consumers and citizens alike.
Polycentric law regards the legal services that governments provide—defining rules, policing their application, and settling disputes—as a ripe field for competition. When a government claims a monopoly in the law, it tends to neglect its subjects' needs. In a polycentric system, however, providers of legal services care more about what consumers want. They have to, if they don't want to go out of business.
Our Polycentric World
But won't competition between legal services lead to chaos? Evidently not. We already live in a world that offers us a degree of choice between the sorts of rules we live under. Polycentric law simply takes note of that fact, sees the good in it, and argues for more of the same....
From Plain Old Law to Polycentric Law
To fully understand the extent of polycentric law, you have to understand the nature of law itself. Legal philosopher Lon Fuller aptly described it as "the enterprise of subjecting human conduct to the governance of rules." So described, the law is not just a service provided by public organizations. It also issues from private sources such as homeowners' associations, businesses, religions, clubs, and myriad other organizations, all of which subject their members' conduct to the governance of rules....
For More Polycentricity
We already live in a somewhat polycentric world. Except when they completely imprison their subjects, governments already compete against each other for financial and human capital. In the long run, as a consequence, governments that fail to supply adequate legal services tend to end up poor and unpopulated. Alas for consumers of governing services, though, that “long run” can last for generations. For governments to become better, faster, they must face more competition....
From a Good World to a Better One
Far from a mere theoretical ideal, polycentric law already shapes our world. We need only appreciate its latent power and invite more of the same. Once more fully realized, polycentric law can give consumers of the law the same benefit that free and open competition already gives to the consumers of banking, cleaning, and veterinary care: excellent consumer service.