Newt Gingrich Proposes “Free Cities”

At the National Review, (and oddly, without mentioning Paul Romer) Gingrich rebrands Romer’s Charter Cities:

The U.S. should negotiate a series of bilateral treaties with receptive governments, carving out undeveloped sites the size of Hong Kong. Then a joint venture between the host government and the U.S. would launch brand new Free Cities in these places, with a complete set of American-style freedoms and responsibilities, guaranteed by treaty for 50 years. Treaty-based Free Cities would entice and attract enterprising people and capital from around the world by offering: self-government; the rule of law; low taxes; reliable prosecution of corruption; freedom of faith, speech, and press; public registration of real property; a merit-based civil service; multi-ethnic meritocracy; zero tariffs; and an American university. Free Cities would exemplify free-market globalization, rather than the economic exploitation of protectionist colonialism. They would generate millions of jobs where there are none today. And rather than opening another bottomless pit of statist foreign aid, these cities would be self-funding. A Free Cities development strategy would pay its own way by attracting funds from the private sector.

Hat tip to Karl Gallagher. That Newt has taken up the cause of competitive governance is tremendous news. Welcome aboard. I can’t help but raise a few quibbles, however, as Newt appears to insist on American-style this and American university that. If the U.S. can lead the way on the creation of Charter Cities in the poorer regions of the world…awesome. Dynamite. But the irony is that the U.S. itself doesn’t even offer the freedoms Gingrich calls American. One of Paul Romer’s tactics seems wise to me here. Whenever Romer raises the idea of multilateral agreements for establishing a Charter City, he mentions Canada as a party and not the U.S.. And with good reason. The U.S. has a long, shameless history of intervening in the affairs of puppet states. And given America’s own political constraints, I find it hard to believe the freedoms Gingrinch adumbrates will receive ensured protection. What happens when a Free City starts making autos in direct competition with General Motors? How long will that promise on zero tariffs last? I’ll take the under on 3 months.

[Update: Michael Strong has alerted me to the fact that Gingrich’s coauthor, Ken Hagerty, proposed the Free City concept in the Weekly Standard, back in 2007.]