The Seasteading Institute supports experimentation with new societies. The Seasteading Institute thinks people should be able to peacefully test new ideas for government. The most successful can then inspire change in governments around the world. Seasteaders believe that government shouldn't be like the cell phone carrier industry, with few choices and high customer-lock-in. Instead, we envision a vibrant startup sector for government, with many small groups experimenting with innovative ideas as they compete to serve their citizens' needs better.
athousandnations.com favors competition between governments.
http://www.butterbach.net is Christian Butterbach's libertarian web site. Christian Butterbach thinks governments should not have territories, such that people who are in the government't territory must submit to the government. Instead, people should be free to choose to not be subject to a government they oppose. This is like competitive federalism because competitive federalism also respects the right of people to exempt themselves from laws they do not agree with. Christian Butterbach calls this extraterritoriality. I agree with Christian Butterbach that governments tend to abuse their powers over their territories, but I think governments need to have territories. I think the solution is not to abolish territories, but to make territories small, and the boundaries between government territories should be constantly changing. Also, I do not like the word extraterritorial because it could be interpreted to mean that no personal territory like your own private home is allowed.
http://www.panarchy.orgis a collection of writings by various people. Some of these writings are old, and some of the writers are dead. It is interesting that similar ideas have occurred to different people at different times. Panarchy is based on the idea that there should be multiple governments for people to choose from, and that these governments should compete for citizens. This is very similar to competitive federalism, but most of these writers are more anarchistic than I am.
http://www.polyarchy.orgis more writings relating to panarchy. I do not know why this is a seperate web site from panarchy.org.
The American Enterprise institute had a conference on the future of federalism in America on September 12, 2008. details
At the International Society for Individual Liberty 2006 world conference, Prague, Czech Republic, July 7-11 2006; Christian Michel gave a speech about Liberty and Community. Christian Michel said that the Ottoman empire and the Austro-Hungarian empire benefitted from polycentric legal systems; that civil wars are unlikely when it is easy for dissidents to secede and form their own community; that the best way to deal with lunatic extremists is to allow them to form their own lunatic extremist communities and let them discover for themselves that their stupid ideas about how to run a community are wrong; that political fragmentation in medieval Europe fostered skepticism and innovation, and selected efficient social behaviours; and that the independence of government regulatory agencies from elected officials helps protect human rights. But I disagree with Christian Michel that republics demand ethnic homogeneity. I also disagree with the claim that people are unwilling to make sacrifices for an empire. When the last male Hapsburg died in 1715, he left the Austro-Hungarian empire to his daughter, Maria Theresa. There was a constitutional crises because many people were unwilling to accept a female emperor, and Prussia invaded. But Maria Theresa went to Bohemia (which is now the Czech republic) and asked for help. The Czechs raised an army and defeated the Prussian army. The Austro Hungarian empire was saved because the Czechs were willing to make sacrifices for the Austrians and Hungarians.
Michael Otsuka wrote the book Libertarianism without Inequality. The book "defends a pluralistic, decentralized ideal of political society as a confederation of voluntary associations". Michael Otsuka calls this consensual government. Michael Otsuka might object to the phrase competitive federalism because Michael Otsuka is left wing, and most advocates of competitive federalism are right wing. However, I think that Michael Otsuka's consensual government is the same as competitive federalism, because both consensual government and competitive federalism are based upon the right of each individual person to choose which government to live under.
The Federalism Project claims to support competitive federalism. However, the federalism project also supports right wing policies, and sometimes the federalism project prefers right wing policies to competitive federalism.
Stephan Kinsella is a libertarian decentralist who thinks that the american federal government intervenes in american state governments too frequently, that state governments should be able to nullify acts of the federal government, that state governments should be able to secede from the federal government, and that competition between states is an important limit on the power of state governments. Stephan Kinsella recognizes that if the central government intervenes in regional governments to prevent the regional governments from violating human rights, then this shifts power from the regional governments to the central government, and there is no higher government which can restrain the central government from violating human rights. Stephan Kinsella has some good ideas, but Stephen Kinsella spends too much time mocking stupid people who disagree with him.
Revolting.com, a left libertarian web site maintained by R. U. Sirius, contains a lot of nonsense, such as calling for more government respect for human rights, while also favoring government policies which can only be implemented by violating human rights. But R. U. Sirius also says that people who disagree with government policies should be able to exempt their communities from government policies. Allowing communities to have policies which are different from the policies of other communities is the most important part of competitive federalism.
The following organizations sometimes support competitive federalism, or
else support federalism or decentralization without emphasizing competition
between governments:
American Legislative Exchange Council
Cato Institute
Center for Individual Rights
cmfp of Philippines
Federo of Uganda
Federalist Society
Friedrich Naumann Foundation of Germany
Forum of Federations
Independent Institute
Public Interest Institute of Iowa
Samuel Griffith Society of Australia
Also see the open directory project's list of federalism web sites and yahoo's directory of federalism web sites
other links about things other than competitive federalism:
Kenneth Howlett's web sites
A Promotion Guide website promotion tutorial by Lauri Harpf