England had property-rights based monarchy. It’s basically gone now. So pace Mencius Moldbug, it can’t be especially good a system—else it would not have died.
England was never a ‘corporate’ monarchy in the sense of a limited-liability joint-stock company with numeric shares, voting rights, etc. I never said it was, though, but that it was ‘property-rights based’, which it was—the whole country and all legal privileges were property which the king could and did rent and sell away.
This is one of the major topics of Nick Szabo’s blog Unenumerated. If you have the time, I strongly recommend reading it all. It’s up there with Overcoming Bias in my books.
Moldbug calls this a joint-stock republic, though he mixes it with some of his more fringe ideas.
I’ll second gwern’s recommendation on Nick Szabo’s blog—he has a post on Government for Profit, which I think was written as a rebuttal to some of Moldbug’s ideas (see the comments in this post)
Another recommendation for Nick Szabo’s blog. The only online writings I know of about governance and political economy that come close are the blogs of economist Arnold Kling and the eccentric and hyperbolic Mencius Moldbug. (Hanson’s blog is extremely strong on several subjects, but governance is not IMHO one of them.)
Another recommendation for Nick Szabo’s blog. The only online writings I know of about governance and political economy that come close are the blogs of economist Arnold Kling and the eccentric and hyperbolic Mencius Moldbug.
I agree with all these recommendations, and I’d add that these three authors have written some of their best stuff in the course of debating each other. In particular, a good way to get the most out of Moldbug is to read him alongside Nick Szabo’s criticisms that can be found both in UR comments and on Szabo’s own blog. As another gem, the 2008 Moldbug-Kling debate on finance (parts
(1),
(2), (3),
(4), and
(5)) was one of the best and most insightful discussions of economics I’ve ever read.
Hanson’s blog is extremely strong on several subjects, but governance is not IMHO one of them.
I agree. In addition, I must say I’m disappointed with the shallowness of the occasional discussions of governance on LW. Whenever such topics are opened, I see people who otherwise display tremendous smarts and critical skills making not-even-wrong assertions based on a completely naive view of the present system of governance, barely more realistic than the descriptions from civics textbooks.
What is the term for this mode of governance? Corporate Monarchy? Seems like a good idea to me.
England had property-rights based monarchy. It’s basically gone now. So pace Mencius Moldbug, it can’t be especially good a system—else it would not have died.
I don’t understand this. England never was a corporate monarchy, though.
England was never a ‘corporate’ monarchy in the sense of a limited-liability joint-stock company with numeric shares, voting rights, etc. I never said it was, though, but that it was ‘property-rights based’, which it was—the whole country and all legal privileges were property which the king could and did rent and sell away.
This is one of the major topics of Nick Szabo’s blog Unenumerated. If you have the time, I strongly recommend reading it all. It’s up there with Overcoming Bias in my books.
Moldbug calls this a joint-stock republic, though he mixes it with some of his more fringe ideas.
I’ll second gwern’s recommendation on Nick Szabo’s blog—he has a post on Government for Profit, which I think was written as a rebuttal to some of Moldbug’s ideas (see the comments in this post)
Another recommendation for Nick Szabo’s blog. The only online writings I know of about governance and political economy that come close are the blogs of economist Arnold Kling and the eccentric and hyperbolic Mencius Moldbug. (Hanson’s blog is extremely strong on several subjects, but governance is not IMHO one of them.)
rhollerith_dot_com:
I agree with all these recommendations, and I’d add that these three authors have written some of their best stuff in the course of debating each other. In particular, a good way to get the most out of Moldbug is to read him alongside Nick Szabo’s criticisms that can be found both in UR comments and on Szabo’s own blog. As another gem, the 2008 Moldbug-Kling debate on finance (parts (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5)) was one of the best and most insightful discussions of economics I’ve ever read.
I agree. In addition, I must say I’m disappointed with the shallowness of the occasional discussions of governance on LW. Whenever such topics are opened, I see people who otherwise display tremendous smarts and critical skills making not-even-wrong assertions based on a completely naive view of the present system of governance, barely more realistic than the descriptions from civics textbooks.