“Even the wisest and best of governments never functions with the full and free consent of all its subjects observed the Belgian economist Paul Emile de Puydt in the 1860 article “Panarchy,” noting that “there are parties, either victorious or defeated; there are majorities and minorities in perpetual struggle; and the more confused their notions are, the more passionately they hold to their ideals.” So, what solution did de Puydt offer?
“I hope we can all go on living together wherever we are, or elsewhere, if one likes, but without discord, like brothers, each freely holding his opinions and submitting only to a power personally chosen and accepted,” offered the author. He proposed that people be able to freely register their support for, or withdrawal from, any variety of political associations that could draw sufficient support to maintain their existence.
“Ultimately,” continued de Puydt, “everyone would live in his own individual political community, quite as if there were not another, nay, ten other, political communities nearby, each having its own contributors too.”
J.D. Tuccille proposes that an increasingly divided America take another look at de Puydt’s panarchy idea.
from Hit & Run https://ift.tt/2Quvih8
via IFTTT