|
(click on ads for more
details)
|
|
The Free State Project: An Introduction
by Jason P
Sorens
jason.sorens@yale.edu
Department of Political Science
Yale University
How much is
liberty worth to you? Try to
quantify it: what would you give up in order to secure real liberty, the
kind we libertarians have imagined everyone would enjoy in an ideal
society? Would you move to
another part of the U.S. if it meant you could enjoy that kind of liberty,
and participate in building it? If
so, the Free State Project may well be for you.
The Free
State Project (FSP) is a plan whereby 20,000 libertarians, classical
liberals, and other advocates of strictly limited government will move to
a single state of the U.S. to set up a free society.
We will do this by working within the electoral system, starting by
eliminating unjust state and local laws and practices, like asset
forfeiture, zoning, state drug and gun laws, socialized schooling, and so
on. We could also end state police cooperation with federal
agencies in enforcing unjust federal laws.
Then we would bargain directly with the federal government over
achieving sufficient autonomy in other areas; in Canada, for example, the
provinces have won the right to opt out of different federal programs in
exchange for a tax rebate. We
will continue to pursue decentralization until we have created an
essentially free society.
The way it
works is that the FSP will collect 20,000 signatures from people willing
to move. Once 5,000
participants have signed up, the whole membership will vote on the state
to which we will move, following extensive research on the candidate
states. Our preliminary
research indicates that 11 states are theoretically small enough for
20,000 activists to win most state-level elections: Wyoming, Alaska, North
Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, Rhode Island,
Idaho, and New Hampshire. (For
an analysis on how 20,000 activists could win majorities in small states,
see the http://www.freestateproject.com/faq.html
Free State
Project FAQ.) Don’t want to
move to, say, Alaska or Wyoming? No
problem: when you sign the Statement of Intent, you may indicate which
states you reserve the right not to move to. The move only begins after 20,000 people have signed up.
What will
make the FSP succeed where similar projects have failed is that: 1) we are
researching the best place to go, rather than picking some arbitrary
location; 2) we are relying on the decision of the membership, not one
person’s fancy; 3) we are collecting signatures before the move.
The last is
important because it means that there is no
risk to signing up.
If we don’t reach 20,000 signers, the move never happens.
But if we do reach 20,000 participants, we will be on the brink of
an achievement of historical significance.
What makes
the Free State Project necessary is that libertarians have not achieved
political success while dispersed around the country.
At the rate we’re going, it will take centuries to elect a
libertarian President and Congress, if ever.
In fact, it is likely that if we do not strike a strong blow for
liberty now, the chance will indeed be lost for centuries.
Right now the world’s political systems are on the cusp of rapid
change. But contrary to the
“case for libertarian optimism” that was in vogue five to ten years
ago, this change is mostly for the worse.
Globalization and the Internet have not caused governments to roll
back taxes and regulations, as we’d hoped.
Instead, international organizations such as the IMF, European
Union, OSCE, OECD, and United Nations have punished governments that allow
financial privacy and pursue low taxes.
In the wake of the September 11th tragedy, the prospects
for liberty are even dimmer: the catalogue of abuses coming out of the
executive branch hardly needs to be repeated by now.
We need to
undertake peaceful, legal strategies that give us a chance of winning. At the moment,
the Free State Project is our best chance.
The FSP isn’t a silver bullet, the one strategy that will put us
over the top. Think of it as
a framework for strategies:
imagine all the good that could come out of the sinergy of a single
community of freedom lovers. I
can’t predict what will happen, but I can’t help but think that the
results will be incredible.
To see if
the FSP might be right for you, take a look at http://www.freestateproject.com
– and let
us know what you think!
|
