Polycentric Law
Interesting article on “True Separation of Powers” by Jonathan Wilde in response to (and quoting) an interesting article by Jim Henley.
The idea behind checks and balances under separation of powers is the restraint of mutual jealousy – each of the three branches will be so zealous of its prerogatives, and so wary of overreaching by the other branches, as to want to keep the other two in line. This has proven spectacularly ineffective in practice and in retrospect its not hard to see why.
…The real separation of powers the Founders achieved was in making the Federal government relatively small so that power would be distributed to the states, whose laws would differ from one state to the next. …
It ends up proposing the easy formation of competing, non-geographic governments and law enforcement as a private good. Very Vinge. Sure to terrify the anti-globos too, ironically.
UPDATE 2004/09/21:
Sweet! Via the Vinge page linked above, Spectrum Online includes Synthetic Serendipity, a tale from Fairmont High by Vinge. Like (the Hugo award winning) Fast Times at Fairmont High from his Collected Stories, it’s awesome. Hopefully the promised novel will come out soon!