A Debate Proposal

Our blog’s particular focus is on innovations that can increase the quality and diversity of governance. And one key element to improving the quality of governance, we believe, is having the power of exit. Some communitarians have felt our position undermines their favored values and obligations. We feel otherwise, so we’d like to propose an online debate across the political spectrum. Max Borders and I offer you the following prompt:

Community and Coercion

How is community possible? Suppose we all agree that there is a deep-seated human need for community and that people have certain obligations to it. How far do those obligations extend? How much coercion by one person of another is required to sustain community? Liberals and communitarians agree that civil association is vital to the success of human society. But to what degree is community a product of dynamic, bottom-up forces and to what degree does community require top-down guidance by elites with authority? In our view, most of these questions terminate in one’s answer to a simpler question:

“Is a right of exit compatible with our obligations either to community or to a territorial system of governance?”

This statement is meant as a conversation starter. We’d like for as many thoughtful bloggers as possible from across the political spectrum to talk about this claim. We’ve left it relatively free of context so that people can have maximum freedom to comment. As people write posts, we will assemble these links into a single post with links as a point of reference.

So if you feel so inclined, reply to the above proposition and send us a link to your post at athousandnationsbloom@gmail.com

Or not! Of course…