Is it a place or a people? (Patri Friedman)

About this episode

Patri Friedman discusses the challenges of establishing autonomous communities and the role of land and people in creating new governance systems.

Patri Friedman is the founder of Pronomos , the leading venture capital firm investing in charter cities, startup societies, and other “future governance” projects — the institutions that will update and supplant the Westphalian system. We recorded a members-only Q&A with him on the project of carving out autonomy and creating new states. EXIT is a fraternity dedicated to shorting managerial systems, and building the personal, human institutions that come next. Learn more here: As we discuss on the call, the task has two components: * Land. Someone has to establish the relationships, agreements, legal frameworks, and public infrastructure for autonomous communities. * People. Someone has to build the communities themselves — groups of people with a shared vision that is sufficiently compelling, and drawing a population of sufficient scale, to draw a critical mass to the new polity. Patri is primarily focused on the land — supporting projects like Prospera , which has established significant practical autonomy on an island off the coast of Honduras. As we discuss on the call, the problem with a “land-first” approach is drawing committed people to the project once you’ve laid…

People in this episode

Host: Bennett's Phylactery

Guest: Patri Friedman

Topics covered

• charter cities
• future governance
• autonomy
• startup societies
• community building

Keywords

• charter cities
• autonomy
• governance
• Pronomos
• Prospera
• community building
• special economic zones

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Pronomos, EXIT

Places: Honduras, Prospera

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