The headlines on the 9/11 Commission feature the call for a "spy czar."  The best response to this suggestion was given by James Woolsey, former head of the CIA, whom I watched on C-Span a couple of days ago.  In rough paraphrase (I am working from memory), he said:  "Can't we drop this word 'czar'?  Five hundred years of autocracy and incompetence that culminated in the Bolshevik Revolution is not a model to be emulated."

There is a property rights and markets point here. The idea  that we can set up a perfect hierarchy with one grand decisionmaker who will then save us is delusional, in any area.  Whether one is thinking about a company, a government, or a society, one must trust one's culture and civilization. Authority of various sorts is necessary, but basically a society must nurture the growth of institutions and rules that permit all of its members to bring their full powers of intellect and energy to bear, not put its faith in some super-wise czar.

History shows that property rights and markets are among the most important of these institutions, right up there with representative assemblies. A challenge to thinkers about organizations and hierarchies is the development of institutions and rules that can serve the same functions in these contexts that property rights and markets serve in the economy and society at large.

posted by James DeLong @ 8:05 AM | General

Link to this Entry | Printer-Friendly | Email a Comment | Post a Comment(0)