@MvK and @titotal , here is the new section about political tractability:
“A bigger problem is political feasibility. The whole concept of giving a city the ability to write its own rules is to make reform easier, but in order to get that ball rolling, you first need to find a nation willing to give away lots of their own regulation-writing authority in order to enable your charter city project. This isn’t completely unheard of—in many ways, charter cities are just a bigger and bolder version of “Special Economic Zones”, where a port might be granted lower tarrifs or streamlined permitting for the sake of spurring industrial development. Nevertheless, asking for broad autonomy to create an entire city is a tall order.
Indeed, Paul Romer was originally involved in efforts to create charter cities in Madagascar and Honduras, but later abandoned both projects. Despite being invited by each country’s president, the idea became politically controversial in both nations, and the project in Madagascar fell apart when the president’s party was voted out of power. In Honduras, a law authorizing charter cities was passed after years of political wrangling, but Paul Romer distanced himself from the result, saying that Honduran corporate special interests had corrupted his original vision.”
@MvK and @titotal , here is the new section about political tractability:
(With footnotes going to https://nationalpost.com/news/year-in-ideas-professor-touts-special-economic-zones-known-as-charter-cities and https://devpolicy.org/why-charter-cities-have-failed-20190716/ )
I’m still thinking about what from the existing draft could be cut or condensed, if you have any suggestions!