The Voluntary City

Last updated

The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society is an Independent Institute-published book, edited by David T. Beito, about communities with private provision of municipal services. [1] Contributors include Stephen Davies, Daniel B. Klein, Robert C. Arne, Bruce L. Benson, David G. Green, James Tooley, Fred E. Foldvary, Donald J. Boudreaux, Randall G. Holcombe, Robert H. Nelson, Spencer H. MacCallum, and Alexander Tabarrok. It covers the topics of privatized provision of urban infrastructure, roads, planning, police, charity, medical care, education, and commercial regulation, particularly through examination of historical examples of this provision.

Some criticisms of the book are that it does not adequately address situations such as the accident at Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, where private sector managers failed to install fire suppression equipment or leave the egresses unlocked (a common practice at the time), causing the death of around 146 employees; or the repressive nature of some private communities, including Pullman, Illinois. However, the book has also been praised for its bibliography, which has many useful resources on privatization. [2] Among the examples the book gives of private communities are the private places of St. Louis and the Central Manufacturing District of Chicago.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Machinery of Freedom</i> 1973 nonfiction book by David D. Friedman

The Machinery of Freedom is a nonfiction book by David D. Friedman that advocates an anarcho-capitalist society from a consequentialist perspective.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public good (economics)</span> Good that is non-excludable and non-rival

In economics, a public good is a good that is both non-excludable and non-rivalrous. Use by one person neither prevents access by other people, nor does it reduce availability to others. Therefore, the good can be used simultaneously by more than one person. This is in contrast to a common good, such as wild fish stocks in the ocean, which is non-excludable but rivalrous to a certain degree. If too many fish were harvested, the stocks would deplete, limiting the access of fish for others. A public good must be valuable to more than one user, otherwise, its simultaneous availability to more than one person would be economically irrelevant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Civil society</span> Third sector of society, distinct from government and business

Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere. By other authors, civil society is used in the sense of 1) the aggregate of non-governmental organizations and institutions that advance the interests and will of citizens or 2) individuals and organizations in a society which are independent of the government.

A homeowner association, or a homeowner community, is a private association-like entity in the United States, Canada, the Philippines and certain other countries often formed either ipso jure in a building with multiple owner-occupancies, or by a real estate developer for the purpose of marketing, managing, and selling homes and lots in a residential subdivision. The developer will typically transfer control of the association to the homeowners after selling a predetermined number of lots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public sector</span> Public part of the economy

The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, infrastructure, public transit, public education, along with health care and those working for the government itself, such as elected officials. The public sector might provide services that a non-payer cannot be excluded from, services which benefit all of society rather than just the individual who uses the service. Public enterprises, or state-owned enterprises, are self-financing commercial enterprises that are under public ownership which provide various private goods and services for sale and usually operate on a commercial basis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John G. Carlisle</span> American politician (1834–1910)

John Griffin Carlisle was an American attorney and Democratic Party politician from Kentucky. He represented Kentucky in the United States House of Representatives from 1877 to 1890, serving as the 31st Speaker of the House from 1883 to 1889, and served in the United States Senate from 1890 to 1893. He served as the 41st Secretary of the Treasury, in the second administration of President Grover Cleveland, from 1893 to 1897—a period that included the Panic of 1893. As a Bourbon Democrat he was a leader of the conservative, pro-business wing of the party, along with Cleveland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Tabarrok</span> Canadian-American economist

Alexander Taghi Tabarrok is a Canadian-American economist. Tabarrok is a professor at Virginia's George Mason University and Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the school's Mercatus Center.

In relation to public services, the voluntary sector is the realm of social activity undertaken by non-governmental, not for profit organizations. This sector is also called the third sector, community sector, and nonprofit sector. "Civic sector" or "social sector" are other terms used for the sector, emphasizing its relationship to civil society. Voluntary sector activities are important in many areas of life, including social care, child care, animal welfare, sport and environmental protection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benefit society</span> Organization formed to provide mutual aid

A benefit society, fraternal benefit society, fraternal benefit order, friendly society, or mutual aid society is a society, an organization or a voluntary association formed to provide mutual aid, benefit, for instance insurance for relief from sundry difficulties. Such organizations may be formally organized with charters and established customs, or may arise ad hoc to meet unique needs of a particular time and place.

The Independent Institute is an American libertarian think tank based in Oakland, California. Founded in 1986 by David J. Theroux, the institute focuses on political, social, economic, legal, environmental, and foreign policy issues. It has more than 140 research fellows. The institute was originally established in San Francisco, was re-located in 1989 to Oakland, and since 2006 has had an office in Washington, D.C. The institute is organized into seven centers addressing a range of issues. According to the 2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report, the institute is ranked number 42 in the "Top Think Tanks in the United States".

An assurance contract, also known as a provision point mechanism, or crowdaction, is a game-theoretic mechanism and a financial technology that facilitates the voluntary creation of public goods and club goods in the face of collective action problems such as the free rider problem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lafayette Square, St. Louis</span> Neighborhood of St. Louis in Missouri, United States

Lafayette Square is a neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri, which is bounded on the north by Chouteau Avenue, on the south by Interstate 44, on the east by Truman Parkway, and on the west by South Jefferson Avenue. It surrounds Lafayette Park, which is the city's oldest public park — created by local ordinance in 1836.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">T. R. M. Howard</span> American physician

Theodore Roosevelt Mason Howard was an American civil rights leader, fraternal organization leader, entrepreneur and surgeon. He was a mentor to activists such as Medgar Evers, Charles Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Amzie Moore, Aaron Henry, and Jesse Jackson, whose efforts gained local and national attention leading up to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

David T. Beito is an American historian and professor emeritus of history at the University of Alabama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toll roads in the United States</span> Overview of toll roads in the United States

There are many toll roads in the United States; as of 2006, toll roads exist in 35 states, with the majority of states without any toll roads being in the West and South. In 2015, there were 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of toll roads in the country.

Linda Royster Beito is professor of political science and criminal justice at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

A voluntary society, voluntary community or voluntary city is a term used in right-libertarianism to describe an entity in which all property and all services are provided through what the proponents of the term call "voluntary means" and in which they include private or cooperative ownership.

A prosecution association was an organization of citizens, typically in the same community, who paid dues to cover one another's costs of privately prosecuting offenders should a crime be committed against them.

Eric Helland is the William F. Podlich Professor of Economics in Robert Day School of Economics and Finance at Claremont McKenna College and Claremont Graduate University, George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College, and Senior Economist, Institute for Civil Justice, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA.

Robert Reed Church Jr. was a prominent businessman and Republican Party organizer in Memphis, Tennessee. His father was the successful businessman Robert Reed Church, and Church Jr. succeeded his father as president of the Solvent Savings Bank and Trust Company after his father's death. An African American, he organized the first NAACP branch in Tennessee and was a member of the NAACP national board of directors. From the 1910s to 1940s, he was one of the most powerful political figures in his hometown of Memphis. Forced to leave Memphis because of harassment by Democratic boss E. H. Crump, Church moved to Washington, D.C., in 1940.

References

  1. The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society
  2. D. Andrew Austin (December 2003). "Review: Reviewed Work: 'The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society' by David T. Beito, Peter Gordon, Alexander Tabarrok". Journal of Economic Literature. 41 (4): 1329–1331. JSTOR   3217504.