I blame all of you

Aside 10/01/2020 Rick Weber Comments, Current Events New York Times, public opinion, weird al

Here we are, 20 years into the distant future, and the newspaper of record now includes musical opinion pieces. Don’t get me wrong, I love Weird Al, but I’m sure he’d agree that a world where he’s writing songs for the Times is a world that’s broken.

It would be comforting to imagine this is the fault of the Illuminati. But the truth is our society is the collective outcome of all of our actions. There are constraints keeping us away from Utopia (limited time and resources, path dependence, etc.), but within the bounds of those constraints we get the outcome that we want. And apparently the outcome we want (i.e. want enough that we’re willing to work for it) is a dumpster fire.

Get your shit together humanity. It doesn’t have to be this bad. But it’s not going to get better if we keep rage tweeting about how awful it is how the other side keeps rage tweeting.

Nightcap

09/30/202009/30/2020 Brandon Christensen Links hierarchy, SCOTUS, statelessness, United Kingdom

Pirates, liberty, and imperialism Regina Much, Commonweal
Can hierarchies be rescued? Chang Che, Los Angeles Review of Books
How to restrain judicial review Ryan Doerfler (interview), Vox
Twilight of the union Colin Kidd, New Statesman

Nightcap

09/29/202009/29/2020 Brandon Christensen Links cancel culture, civil liberty, extremism, Othering

Orwellian Othering Bryan Caplan, EconLog
Cancel With Them Irfan Khawaja, Policy of Truth
The rise of extreme politics in a federation VOXEU
Conquests, atrocities, and non-Europeans Lipton Matthews, Mises Wire

The Westphalian myth

09/29/202009/28/2020 Brandon Christensen History constitutionalism, Holy Roman Empire, international relations, state sovereignty, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Westphalia

Was the Peace of Westphalia and its implications for state sovereignty one big myth?

The apparently ineradicable notion (repeated even by many recent historians of the war) that the Peace of Westphalia sanctioned the “sovereignty” of Switzerland and the Netherlands and their independence from the empire demonstrates this. In the case of the Swiss it is based on a willful (and sometimes uninformed) interpretation of the relevant clause in the treaties, giving it a meaning that its drafters did not intend. And as to the Dutch the treaties do not even deal with them.
The complete autonomy of Switzerland vis-a-vis the empire was uncontroversial in practice, and the Swiss were reluctant to have anything to do with the peace congress. If they eventually allowed themselves to be represented there by the burgomaster of Basel, it was because this city had only joined the Swiss confederation after the other cantons had had their autonomy recognized in a treaty of 1499. The supreme courts of the empire (more particularly, the Imperial Cameral Tribunal) did not consider Basel to be exempt from their jurisdiction and allowed lawsuits against Basel and its citizens, a situation that had caused continual irritation. For this reason Basel insisted on having the immunity of the entire confederation reconfirmed in such a way that it would cover Basel, too. The request was granted, and a clause to that effect included in the treaties. This clause, which explicitly names Basel as its initiator and beneficiary, restates the immunity (exemptio) of the Swiss cantons from the jurisdiction of the empire and their complete autonomy (plena libertas).

Read the rest (pdf). All you Holy Roman Empire fans will enjoy it, too.

Nightcap

09/28/202009/28/2020 Brandon Christensen Links constitutionalism, federation, identity, secession

Hayek (Streeck, Hazony) and world federation and colonialism Eric Schliesser, Digressions & Impressions
The new secessionism Jason Sorens, Modern Age
Winning the court, losing the constitution John Grove, Law & Liberty
The quest for German national identity Anna Corsten, JHIBlog

The collapse of socialism and the sovereignty gap

09/28/202009/28/2020 Brandon Christensen History federation, secession, socialism, state sovereignty

When socialism collapsed in the late 1980s-early 1990s, many debates and contentions were settled, but the issue of sovereignty has only grown in importance thanks in large part to more economic integration. The European attempt at federation, undertaken after the fall of socialism, has not gone well precisely because it cannot close the Westphalian sovereignty gap. The bloodshed in the non-liberal world has largely been a product of the inability of states to fragment, an inability which is encouraged by notions of Westphalian sovereignty and institutionalized by IGOs such as the United Nations or World Bank.
If states wish to break away, but are prohibited from doing so by enormous costs (such as violent aggression from the state it wishes to break away from, or hostility from illiberal states that can use IGOs as mediums to act on those hostilities), then a federation which welcomes states into its union, and which is strong enough to deter aggression, would be a welcome, liberal development.

This is from my forthcoming article in the Independent Review. Here’s a sneak peak (pdf) at the whole thing. I’m guest editing a symposium on the subject at Cosmos + Taxis, in case any of you want to write a response, or add to the conversation…

Nightcap

09/27/202009/27/2020 Brandon Christensen Links authoritarianism, diplomacy, space exploration, spacefaring

In search of the writer-diplomat tradition Robert Fay
Trump is plenty capable Will Wilkinson, Open Society
The case against Mars Byron Williston, Boston Review
Against human colonies Daniel Deudney (interview), LH

Nightcap

09/26/202009/26/2020 Brandon Christensen Links Amy Coney Barrett, constitutionalism, Marcel Mauss, SCOTUS

The meaning of Amy Coney Barrett Ross Douthat, NY Times
What does Ruth Bader Ginsburg mean for women? Amy Wax, CRB
Talking about a constitutional restoration Titus Techera, L&L
Give it away (Marcel Mauss) David Graeber, Free Words

Nightcap

09/25/202009/25/2020 Brandon Christensen Links alliances, computers, constitutionalism, socialist calculation debate

The high stakes of quantum computing Edward Luttwak, American Affairs
A metaphor for the socialist calculation debate Rick Weber, NOL
The American constitution and its consequences (pdf) Mittal, et al, NBER
NATO’s strategic malaise Sara Bjerg Moller, War on the Rocks

Transaction costs, exit, and democracy

09/25/202009/24/2020 Brandon Christensen Politics Daniel Andersson, exit, polycentric order, transaction costs

“What is important to note, however, is that transaction costs associated with relocation matter. The relative success of protectionist and subsidyseeking groups in post-war Britain, Australia, and New Zealand was facilitated by the high costs associated with exercising the exit option. Both Britain and New Zealand are unitary and centralized nation states. Although Australia is a federation, there are only six states, each of which has less fiscal and regulatory autonomy than American states or Canadian provinces.
Polycentric democracy works most effectively when exit-related transaction costs are low and when the number of viable options is large. The closest approximations of a genuine polycentric democracy are the 50 American states and the 26 Swiss cantons.”

Read the rest (pdf). (Yes, I know this was part of last night’s “nightcap,” too.)