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A Utopia? Government Without Territorial Monopoly

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  • Bruno S. Frey

Abstract

We normally take it for granted: a government or state has its corresponding territory. This paper shows that government need not have a territorial monopoly. The paper advances a practical, constitutional proposal, based on the notion that there are meaningful government units, whose major characteristic is not the territorial extension but its function. The constitution proposal allows for the emergence of governmental organizations, which will be called FOCJ according to the acronym for "Functional, Overlapping, Competing Jurisdictions�. Their territory is variable, and they do not have a territorial monopoly over it. Rather, they are in competition with other such FOCJ, and they are, moreover, exposed to political competition.

Suggested Citation

  • Bruno S. Frey, "undated". "A Utopia? Government Without Territorial Monopoly," IEW - Working Papers 047, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    • Handle: RePEc:zur:iewwpx:047
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    12. Frey, Bruno S, 1994. "Direct Democracy: Politico-economic Lessons from Swiss Experience," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 338-342, May.
    13. Bruno S. Frey & Reiner Eichenberger, 1995. "Competition among Jurisdictions: The Idea of FOCJ," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Lüder Gerken (ed.), Competition among Institutions, chapter 8, pages 209-229, Palgrave Macmillan.
    14. Bird, Richard M., 1993. "Threading the Fiscal Labyrinth: Some Issues in Fiscal Decentralization," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 46(2), pages 207-227, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Peter Friedrich, 2011. "Legal European Company Forms to Realize Cross Border FOCJ - Functional Overlapping Competing Jurisdictions," ERSA conference papers ersa10p1009, European Regional Science Association.
    2. Benjamin Powell & Edward Stringham, 2009. "Public choice and the economic analysis of anarchy: a survey," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 503-538, September.
    3. Zhiyong (John) Liu & Zhewei Wang & Zhendong Yin, 2022. "When is duplication of effort a good thing in law enforcement?," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(4), pages 682-708, August.
    4. Christopher Berry, 2008. "Piling On: Multilevel Government and the Fiscal Common‐Pool," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(4), pages 802-820, October.
    5. ., 2019. "Economic theory of non-territorial unbundling," Chapters, in: The Political Economy of Non-Territorial Exit, chapter 1, pages 14-38, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Kjell Hausken & John F. Knutsen, 2002. "The Birth, Adjustment and Death of States," Public Economics 0205004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Peter J. Boettke & Liya Palagashvili, 2015. "Taming Leviathan," Supreme Court Economic Review, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(1), pages 279-303.
    8. Vahabi,Mehrdad, 2019. "The Political Economy of Predation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107591370, September.
    9. Bruno Frey, 2013. "European unification: a new proposal," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 285-294, December.
    10. Schenk-Hoppe, Klaus Reiner & Schmalfu[ss], Bjorn, 2001. "Random fixed points in a stochastic Solow growth model," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 19-30, September.
    11. Alexander Fink, 2012. "The Hanseatic League and the Concept of Functional Overlapping Competing Jurisdictions," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(2), pages 194-217, May.
    12. Peter Boettke, 2018. "Economics and Public Administration," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(4), pages 938-959, April.
    13. Benjamin Powell & Edward Stringham, 2009. "Public choice and the economic analysis of anarchy: a survey," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 503-538, September.
    14. Trent J. MacDonald, 2019. "The Political Economy of Non-Territorial Exit," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 18871.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    federalism; constitutional economics; public choice; monopoly on territory;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods
    • H5 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies

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