Thread by @InnovGovernance

It's awesome to have such thoughtful critiques of the Center for Innovative Governance Research and our goals! Also, Palladium is putting out quality content. Here's my response 1/n
palladiummag.com/2018/10/08/why…

First, I agree with most of it! E.g. the title is 'Why Charter Cities Won’t Lead To Decentralized Government'. I mostly agree. However, the goal isn't decentralized gov, it's human flourishing, charter cities are a tool for policy reform to improve human flourishing 2/n

The Center is reacting, in a way, against the techno libertarian branch of innovative governance, shifting the focus to development infused econ 3/n jacobitemag.com/2018/03/23/the…

While I do have ties to libertarian orgs, I do not believe charter cities are a libertarian concept. There is wide agreement on the importance of rule of law, property rights, and doing business for econ dev. Institutions matter, and we should take their role seriously 4/n

To reiterate, charter cities are a tool for policy reform, ideally institutional reform. Charter cities can be a mechanism to import effective institutions, or experiment with new institutions. 5/n

As a matter of note, neither Macau nor Hong Kong were used by the Chinese gov to test reforms. Both were accidents of history rules by Portugal and Hong Kong respectively 6/n

I agree that existing examples of charter city like projects have strong, centralized govs. However, the market oriented reforms in Shenzhen and Dubai still had positive effects on per capita income 7/n

The nation state is generally underrated, and I am ok with charter cities being used to strengthen nation states if the charter cities also increase human flourishing. Charter cities are not an end in and of themselves. 8/n

"If best practices for quickly creating new cities can be honed in the coming years, the consequences of this population shift can be mitigated and its opportunities better pursued." Fully agree 9/n

"The unreliable institutions in the country are themselves undermining the possibilities for improvement." Agreed, the political problem continues to loom large. That is what the Center is trying to fix! 10/n
medium.com/@marklutter/cr…

"The CIGR discussion blog has noted the growing economic literature on state capacity as a prerequisite to economic success". Charter cities can be thought of as a way to import state capacity 11/n

"However, there seems to be little discussion as yet relating these facts to the core assumptions of Western liberalism or free market ideology." I'm not trying to! At least, not yet. 12/n

"it raises the question as to what value the charter city concept provides apart from popular discussion of a global trend." Improving and accelerating the trend is the goal + solution to urbanization w/o industrialization 13/n

"The second role is that of providing institutional investment in terms of codes of law and government... In practice, this has been mostly done by states, but theoretically a corporation could supply... these services." In states with low capacity, corp provision necessary 14/n

That corp provision doesn't have to be for profit. Institutional experimentation important. 15/n

"Almost none of the projects which have met success engage in the discourse of decentralization, reform, or political liberalization." Shenzhen? I agree there is a disconnect between libertarian discourse and reality, but this statement isn't entirely accurate. 16/n

"If carried out correctly, they will allow hundreds of millions to avoid the displacement and poverty which can dissolve regions into conflict." We agree! 17/n

"If strategic, transferable blueprints for economic zones and startup cities can be created, they will become vital tools in dealing with the root causes of the global migration crisis and future urbanization." That's the goal.jpg 18/n

"If the strong association between successful projects and secure governments with state capacity continues, a reborn and decentralizing market liberalism is unlikely to spring up." There is a value add for market liberalism, namely markets usually work 19/n

"future successful projects seem more likely to be guided by hard-nosed, state-oriented geopolitical and developmental concerns." Agreed 20/n

"this has to be understood as powerful states finding ways to innovate and be more nimble, rather than the market finding ways to route around slow legacy governments." Disagree, charter cities have most potential in low capacity sub Saharan Africa 21/n

"the question is whether liberal governments, known for their gridlocked lack of agility, will even be able to keep up at all." I hope so! Liberalism is pretty great, and wasn't always known for gridlock and stagnation 22/n

Thanks for a great article! Looking forward to continuing the conversation! 23/23