Seasteaders Meet Honduran ZEDErs in San Francisco to Discuss the Future of Competitive Governance
As I wrote the other day, and contra Wired magazine's attempt to write it off, the core Seasteading dream of trying to make new lands with new rules is far from dead. In fact, that experimental impulse is also far from restricted to Seasteading per se, as the same sense of the need for competitive governance is also behind another process-in-progress I've reported on here at Reason, the effort to create zones in Honduras with different legal systems from the rest of the country to kick-start, ideally, economic growth in a desperately poor and troubled nation.
They are currently known as "zones for economic development and employment," or ZEDEs. (See many Reason stories on the Honduran experiment.)
It was announced today that the Seasteading Institute is bringing Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez to San Francisco to speak about their mutual interests in competitive governance. From the Seasteaders:
Honduras has enacted the boldest legislation of any nation in recent history, effectively opening a new jurisdictional frontier. Zones for Economic Development and Employment, (ZEDEs) will be developed with entirely new governmental systems, fostering a market of governance bodies competing to attract residents.
The event will feature:
- Juan Orlando Hernández, President of Honduras
- Randolph Hencken, Executive Director of The Seasteading Institute
- Moderator Guillermo Peña Panting, Executive Director of The Eleuthera Foundation
Learn about the unprecedented opportunities in ZEDEs, and expect a major announcement.
Randolph Hencken, Executive Director of the Seasteading Institute, observed, "The unifying trait of seasteaders is a desire to abandon pointless arguments over how government ought to operate, and work together on creating new zones for experimentation to actually demonstrate which systems of government work best."
The event is Monday June 8 at 6 p.m. at Galvanize, 44 Tehama St, San Francisco, CA 94105, and you can register at this link.