ePub The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society (Economics, Cognition, and Society) download

by Peter Gordon,Alexander Tabarrok,David T. Beito

Author:

Peter Gordon,Alexander Tabarrok,David T. Beito

ISBN13:

978-0472088379

ISBN:

0472088378

Language:

English

Publisher:

University of Michigan Press; 1St Edition edition (May 10, 2002)

Category:

Social Sciences

Subcategory:

Politics & Government

ePub file:

1560 kb

Fb2 file:

1978 kb

Other formats:

txt mobi rtf lrf

Rating:

4.4

Votes:

967

Peter Gordon Alexander Tabarrok David T. Beito Politics and Government English

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David T. Beito is associate professor of history at the University of Alabama. Back in the mid to late 90's I had the pleasure of reading a new version of a book written by David Friedman called "The Machinery of Freedom" which was originally published in the 1970's.

David T. He is the author of Black Maverick: . Howard's Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power, From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890–1967, and Taxpayers in Revolt: Tax Resistance during the Great Depression.

Peter Gordon is Professor in the School of Policy, Planning, and Development and Department of Economics, University of Southern California. The rise and decline of American civic life has provoked wide-ranging responses from all quarters of society.

The rise and decline of American civic life has provoked wide-ranging responses from all quarters of society. The Voluntary City investigates the history of large-scale, private provision of social services, the for-profit provision of urban infrastructure and community governance, and the growing privatization of residential life in the United States to argue that most decentralized, competitive markets can contribute greatly to community renewal.

The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 7, No. 2 (Summer 2004): 99–101.

Tags The Environment. The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics 7, No.

Introduction: Towards a Rebirth of Civil Society David T. Beito, Peter Gordon, Alexander Tabarrok. The Voluntary City and Community. Chapter 11: Proprietary Communities and Community Associations Fred E. Foldvary. Part I. BUILDING THE VOLUNTARY CITY. Chapter 2: Laissez-Faire Urban Planning Stephen Davies. Chapter 12: Contractual Governments in Theory and Practice Donald J. Boudreaux and Randall G. Holcombe. Chapter 13: Privatizing The Neighborhood: A Proposal to Replace Zoning with Private Collective Property Rights to Existing Neighborhoods Robert H. Nelson.

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.

The Voluntary City assembles a rich history and analysis of private, locally-based provision of social services, urban infrastructure, and community governance.

Institute of Economic Affairs Publications Policies Society and Culture. The Voluntary City assembles a rich history and analysis of private, locally-based provision of social services, urban infrastructure, and community governance. Such systems have offered superior education, transportation, housing, crime control, recreation, health care, and employment by being more effective, innovative, and responsive than those provided through special-interest politics and bureaucracy.

Article in International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 14(4):455-456 · December 2003 with 2 Reads. How we measure 'reads'.

Since the late 1960s the typical picture of the . city is that of a virtual cesspool of crime, poverty, and drug abuse. That is not the case, however, as The Voluntary City aptly demonstrates time and again. In 15 excellent essays, various writers tackle issues in which problems faced by individuals in a community have been solved through voluntary private cooperation.

The rise and decline of American civic life has provoked wide-ranging responses from all quarters of society. Unfortunately, many proposals for improving our communities rely on renewed governmental efforts without a similar recognition that the inflexibility and poor accountability of governments have often worsened society's ills. The Voluntary City investigates the history of large-scale, private provision of social services, the for-profit provision of urban infrastructure and community governance, and the growing privatization of residential life in the United States to argue that most decentralized, competitive markets can contribute greatly to community renewal.

Narim

This is an incredible book, showing how the world once worked and how it can work again, without too much government interference.

Governments are necessary, but IMHO, they don't need to do everything. Lots of things, for example, heath, security, education, zoning, etc, can be for better (cheaper, more effective) looked after privately.

Nenayally

Fascinating detail and covers many topics. Interesting historical details.

Qusicam

Back in the mid to late 90's I had the pleasure of reading a new version of a book written by David Friedman called "The Machinery of Freedom" which was originally published in the 1970's. Prior to this review I had the opportunity to read the libertarian classic "The Market for Freedom" written by Morris and Linda Tannehill was one of the first books to introduce the concepts of a voluntary society in print.

While I am not sold on anarcho-capitalism, Friedman's book introduced me to anarcho-capitalist ideas and now, years later, thanks to David T. Beito and the Independent Institute, "The Voluntary City" is published that confirms many of the thoughts and ideas Friedman and the Tanehills wrote about in their treatises.

This book is a collection of policy pieces done by different authors that detail specific, present and past real-life examples of free market alternatives to things like court systems and litigation, education, police, housing and welfare. Most of whom were provided by insurance plans people purchased or services provided by private, charitable organizations people belonged to while governments, by and large, stayed out of the way.

One aspect of the book that was not pointed out was private fire departments. Despite them being provided by municipalities, to this day most fire departments in the U.S. are staffed almost entirely by volunteers. Prior to being run by governments, many fire departments were privately provided in which their funding came from insurance plans they particpated in that provided fire protection for their customers. It wasn't until after the civil war that municipalities started acquiring, starting and operating them.

Even today, governments are beginning to privatize many essential services since they have become too costly to run.

For example Arizona-based Rural Metro Corporation has contracts with cities and counties across the country to provide fire and ambulatory services for municipalities that will not or cannot afford to provide them.

Despite this one subject left out, I felt this book was very well done and I heartily recommend it to people who have doubts about private alternatives to government services or to those who are looking for new, radical ideas to replace the monopolies governments have on services they presently provide.

Use_Death

You're not the only one that wonders whether the government that is supposed to guarantee your private property rights seems more interested in making sure your vinyl siding runs the same way as your neighbor's. This is the way of things in America today, where municipal governments segregate business from housing, then wonder why everyone thinks he has to own a car.
Enter the Voluntary City, a cogent and realistic analysis of how we got here, and whether we have actually improved things in doing it. There used to be sufficient housing (try to find the word "homeless" before the Carter presidency), and police that actually had to catch the bad guys (read about one police force that had a catch rate of over 90%), and the reasonable expectation that if you wanted to alter your property you could do so without groveling to the city fathers. We gave these things up in the hope that what we would get back would be better. But is it? Really?
You aren't the only one that wonders. This excellent book provides some answers to the question, and the impetus to take those answers out into the political world. We're doing it where I am.

LeXXXuS

The product was shipped and received promptly. The quality was as stated in the listing description. So far the book is an interesting read and I highly recommend it.

MarF

RE an earlier reviewer's example of volunteer fire departments... one of the reasons that cities professionalized their fire departments is that the volunteers were not always so helpful - they were paid by the value of what they saved, so competing teams would show up at the same fire, and end up fighting with each other for the prize while the building burned. Or they simply wouldn't bother with low-value fires. Firehouses of the period are interesting, culturally - kind of a men's clubhouse - precursor to fraternal lodges.

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