The more elderly among The Spectator’s readership, who still secretly mourn the loss of Nyasaland and the Aden protectorate, may be pleased to hear that a small step was taken last month towards reversing the Empire’s inexorable decline. More surprising still, the idea behind this expansion comes from an American economist and the flag raised will be not the red ensign but the maple leaf. But it’s a start.
The original proposal (mentioned here three years ago) is to create ‘charter cities’ in the developing world where the institutions, infrastructure and government are not those of the surrounding nation but are imported wholesale from somewhere else. City-states whose success supports this approach might include Hong Kong, Macau or Singapore; earlier precedents are found among the Baltic cities of the Hanseatic League. The state of Pennsylvania was granted to William Penn under a similar ‘charter’ arrangement.
Why reinvent the city-state? Paul Romer, the economist behind the idea, simply observed that, in trying to change the world you needed to start somewhere — a village was too small and a nation state too big.
His current plan is to create a Canadian exclave in Honduras. ‘Developing countries [will] create special zones for reform, known in Honduras as la Región Especial de Desarrollo (RED). Countries can then partner with credible allies, like Canada, to implement new economic and social rules on a greenfield site to which people are free to opt in.’ Canadians and Hondurans could move in freely and buy property under Canadian law.
‘Each site would have four common elements: 1. an undeveloped piece of land large enough to one day accommodate a city; 2. a charter that specifies the broad rules that will apply to that city; 3. a commitment to choice, allowing residents to freely enter or leave; and 4. a commitment to treat all residents equally under the law.’ (He seems to have missed out 5. — ‘Four miles of prime beachfront principally occupied by smokin’ hot Honduran babes and frond-roofed bars called “Yellowknife Pete’s Surf Shack”,’ but then I’m not an economist.)
It is, I suppose, a kind of migration in reverse. Rather than force already wealthy cities to absorb the 500 million people who would like to move there, you export a bit of the developed world to somewhere poorer — and sunnier. Says Romer, ‘Our urbanising world does not need more aid; it needs more Canada — more of the rules, norms and know-how that lead to good governance, economic vibrancy and the rule of law.’
Canada, along with New Zealand, is the perfect country to make this work. The Americans would vulgarise it; if the British were to do it, there would be too many colonial associations and, in any case the present-day British are so naff I’m not sure I’d like the results. Canada has no ‘form’ as a colonial power — almost the only country it has invaded is the United States. And very unusually, no one hates them: supposedly the two best things to have on your person if your plane is hijacked are a Canadian passport and a foreskin.
This is a mad idea, I know. But, unlike most ideas which aim to change the world, it will fail or succeed decisively — but won’t drag on expensively for decades. Even if, in 20 years, all you find on the site is a small community of impoverished Canadian retirees complaining that the Honduran coffee isn’t as good as Tim Horton’s (like the still surviving remnants of the Nueva Germania colony founded by Nietzsche’s sister in Paraguay), you haven’t lost much. If it succeeds, the gains could be spectacular. Once they get the airport working, I’m there.
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