From: Eric Watt Forste (arkuat@pobox.com)
Date: Wed Aug 06 1997 - 13:47:10 MDT
Interesting remarks, Eliezer. Hayek has a lot of thoughts on these
subjects too, in THE CONSTITUTION OF LIBERTY and LAW, LEGISLATION,
AND LIBERTY. There was also an interesting book by Henry Hazlitt
called A NEW CONSTITUTION NOW. And I know that Lee Daniel
Crocker, on this list, has made contributions to the
Constitution of Oceania, which was a recent experiment (not yet
put into practice?) of this sort.
I am disturbed by your proposal to eliminate the state level,
however. Better to make the "states" smaller and more numerous,
and the federal and "metropolitan" levels less powerful. (Being
an anarchist at heart, I can't really take such scheming too
seriously, though.)
It's entirely possible that these sorts of structures are far beyond
human engineering skill, and that the US Constitution was partly
a result of careful study of structures that had emerged and grown
without being designed, and partly itself a lucky accident. This
is why I'd favor a loose confederation of nearly independent states,
who can experiment with a variety of different constitutional
systems without risking screwing up their neighbors societies too
much. Different strokes for different folks, doncha know.
-- Eric Watt Forste ++ arkuat@pobox.com ++ expectation foils perception -pcd
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