British Democracy Forum - View Single Post - Resurrect the city-state?.

Tom Commis · 21-08-2005, 07:56 PM

Aristotle determines the maximum population for a democracy to be 100,000 citizens. At this level individual citizens can influence policy directly not just by proxy. This government is always pretending to bring powers closer to the individual e.g. by devoloution but these efforts are clearly bogus.
I've had an idea which I would like to tentativley propose, it is that small areas (say the borough council) would take on most of the powers of a state, e.g. tax raising, criminal codes, etc. The 'statelet' could set it it's own income tax rate but the money would be collected centrally and distributed proportionatley: lets say there were 100 statelets one of which had a tax rate of 10%, that statelet would get 10% of 100th of the total income not 10% of it's own income.
The statelet would use it's tax revenue to purchase services such as health, education and policing and prisons from the central govt. (so an area with a 10% tax rate couldn't afford free health care or heavy punishments for criminals). The central government would remain responsible for foreign policy and defence.
The advantage of a system such as this is that it allows a great diversity of law and practice within the same country without the drawbacks of lack of services.
I am aware that none of this will happen but is it a good idea in theory?, could the country hold together organised like this?.

21-08-2005, 07:56 PM	#1 (permalink)
Tom Commis Junior Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 74	Resurrect the city-state?. Aristotle determines the maximum population for a democracy to be 100,000 citizens. At this level individual citizens can influence policy directly not just by proxy. This government is always pretending to bring powers closer to the individual e.g. by devoloution but these efforts are clearly bogus. I've had an idea which I would like to tentativley propose, it is that small areas (say the borough council) would take on most of the powers of a state, e.g. tax raising, criminal codes, etc. The 'statelet' could set it it's own income tax rate but the money would be collected centrally and distributed proportionatley: lets say there were 100 statelets one of which had a tax rate of 10%, that statelet would get 10% of 100th of the total income not 10% of it's own income. The statelet would use it's tax revenue to purchase services such as health, education and policing and prisons from the central govt. (so an area with a 10% tax rate couldn't afford free health care or heavy punishments for criminals). The central government would remain responsible for foreign policy and defence. The advantage of a system such as this is that it allows a great diversity of law and practice within the same country without the drawbacks of lack of services. I am aware that none of this will happen but is it a good idea in theory?, could the country hold together organised like this?.