notes-voluntaryGovernment

so, how could we make a voluntary, non-territorial government that does not conflict with/is not considered treasonous by existing territorial governments?

you could make one, but why would people want to join?

the most obvious idea is that it would serve as a model, an art project if you will, to talk about and to show to the world proposals for better governance.

an art project shouldn't threaten existing governments, but it has no direct consequence. a problem with this is that, without direct consequence, there is no incentive for government officials to be corrupt, hence the proposed governance system won't really be tested in a realistic way. the lack of consequence also changes many other social dynamics that will prevent a realistic test.

so, how can a voluntary government be made consequential without threatening existing territorial governments?

another idea: arbitration. the voluntary government can be an arbitrary authority that provides an arbitration system which citizens can turn to, if desired, instead of the territorial court system.

currently (2008), as far as i know, individuals do not become involved with arbitration systems until they have a dispute. this makes people (at least me) suspicous of the arbitration organizations; when the dispute is between an individual and some corporation, the arbitration corporation can expect more repeat business if they find in favor of the corporation. so they have a strong incentive to be biased in favor of business entities.

the solution is for individuals to join democratic, civil society arbitration organizations BEFORE they have a dispute. the organizations' incentive is now not to maximize arb cases, but rather to maximize membership. furthermore, because they are democratic, the procedure of the arb organizations are more trustworthy.

a third idea: voluntary socialism. a co-op could start which charges its members a proportion of their income and provides benefits. (this is similar to health insurance co-ops, except that the contribution is a percent of income rather than a fixed amount).