Albery: At the level of the municipality or parish council or urban neighbourhood (population groups normally of between 500 and 15,000 people) the municipality should have the following rights (either on its own or in joint operation with other municipalities of its own choosing) - provided that it is democratically governed and subject to any national or international laws protecting human or minority rights.
(1) The right to establish its own governing council or form of government.
Kappeler's response: This is very important and should be non-controversial.
(2) The right to pass its own laws.
Kappeler: This right should be limited to matters related to cohabitation within the community and relations with similar communities and super-imposed entities, to the extent that the latter do not regulate such inter-community affairs.
Albery: My own view is that the community's laws should take precedence over the laws of other levels of government, except in so far as freely acceded to by that community or as determined by the Decentralisation Commission - see point 11 - or in so far as they relate to basic human or minority rights as enshrined in international conventions.
(3) The right to place taxes on its inhabitants, its businesses, its imports and exports and its resources.
Kappeler: The right of taxation to cover community expenses should exist, but this should not prevent taxation rights of superimposed entities for the financing of their own activities. No taxation of 'imports and exports' should be allowed, as this would create intolerable obstacles to the free flow of goods and services.
Albery: Taxation could be at the community level, with part of the tax remitted to the other levels, in so far as freely acceded to by that community, or as determined by the Decentralisation Commission (point 11). Taxation of imports and exports might indeed hinder trade, in which case a community might decide not to impose such taxes, but it should retain the right to do so - for instance to discriminate against goods from multinational firms. Encouraging communities to become more self-reliant is as or more important than encouraging free trade.
(4) The right to establish its own banks or credit unions.
Kappeler: At the planned level of 500 to 15,000 people, no bank or credit union could function. So this right is pointless.
Albery: Of course credit unions can function with less than 15,000 people. Many are far smaller than this, with mere hundreds of members. And banks too can operate successfully at this level of population - witness the bank in the Vatican, a country with a population of under 1,000.
(5) The right to issue its own currency, in so far as this does not counterfeit other currency issued elsewhere.
Kappeler: At a time when currencies are becoming worldwide so as to eliminate unnecessary complications, such a right should be shunned at all costs. The size of the planned communities would moreover make its exercise illusory.
Albery: Currencies can indeed be issued at the community level, and will, I forecast, increasingly be so issued. Again, the Vatican issues its own currency, despite its population of under 1,000. And the Worgl shilling, issued by the small town of Worgl in Austria in the early 1930s, helped it to overcome the effects of the depression and to decrease unemployment - and only came to an end when other towns wanted to copy Worgl, and the Austrian State Bank stepped in and prohibited the currency. With the new computer networks, there will be many more such experiments - indeed the Institute for Social Inventions published a book on the need for such 'electronic nodes' by Conrad Hopman (entitled 'The Book of Future Changes') and the software already exists; these community nodes could then link up electronically whilst retaining their individuality. Exchanges between multiple versions of computerised money are simple. Similar experiments have taken place in a number of communities using so-called Green Pounds or Green Dollars (see the chapter on 'New Money Systems' in this book).
Any such measures which increase the divisions between economies are to be welcomed. It is like having watertight compartments on the Titanic, for then a local economic crash cannot sweep as easily and catastrophically through the world economy.
Kappeler: This right is self-evident, subject to the need to communicate with other communities and superimposed entities in a language acceptable to both sides.
(7) The right to establish its own schools, according to its own curricula and teaching practices.
Kappeler: This right should be exercised within a much larger framework as regards the determination of curricula and requirements for degrees and diplomas. Otherwise these would lack recognition beyond the narrow confines of the community.
Albery: The right of a community to its own school curricula is worth safeguarding. Countries at present manage to recognise each other's educational qualifications without having standardised curricula.
(8) The right to establish its own police force.
Kappeler: This right is self-evident, but its implementation might be beyond the human and financial resources of very small communities.
Albery: fail to see why a small community should be unable to establish its own police force, even if this were to consist of just one neighbourhood warden. Again, the Vatican manages to have its own police force (indeed its own army!). And there are increasing moves towards neighbourhood vigilante or Guardian Angel-type forces, which are best regulated at the neighbourhood level.
(9) A community shall have the right to establish its own newspapers, radio or TV stations or other forms of media, in so far as these do not interfere with media transmissions from other sources within the region; and with the Decentralisation Commission (in point 11) adjudicating any dispute between communities over wavelengths, etc.
(10) The right to establish its own public transport systems and to control its own roads and transport networks.
Kappeler: Such a right could only be exercised by the largest of the contemplated communities and even then they might find it an excessive financial burden.
(11) The right to select representatives to a Decentralisation Commission made up of representatives from all the other municipalities throughout the nation, which would be wholly responsible for deciding which functions - besides those described above - could be allowed to be provided at the municipality level and which should remain with higher levels of government; and it would adjudicate in any dispute between these higher levels of government and any particular municipality.
Kappeler: Such a body would presumably have to exist alongside the elected parliament of the superimposed entity or as a second chamber of it.
(12) The municipality shall have the right to secede from higher levels of government or from the nation itself - if a majority of its inhabitants so decide in a referendum.
Kappeler: Such a right should not be granted outside truly exceptional circumstances, as it is likely to be grossly abused. Any rich neighbourhood of a city complex (eg Chelsea in London) would secede in order to escape sharing the problems and financial burdens of the others, with results that can be imagined.
And Sale writes that 'Lucca (in Tuscany) became one of the fiercely independent republics in the thirteenth century - with a population of perhaps 10,000 to 12,000 - and for the next 400 years, it was one of the most prosperous places on the entire Italian peninsula ... It was a major banking centre ... Union with successively larger territories served mostly to impoverish the once resplendent republic, and today it is a forgotten backwater.'
Nicholas Albery, 20 Heber Road, London NW2 6AA (tel 081 208 2853; fax 081 452 6434).