Crack-up capitalism Market radicals and the dream of a world without democracy

The world's special economic zones embody a right-wing dream of free markets seceding from governments and voters, according to this penetrating treatise. Wellesley history professor Slobodian (Globalists) surveys subnational jurisdictions with exceptionally business-friendly policies like low taxes, weak regulations, lax labor laws, and openness to foreign investment. They include Hong Kong, the hyper-capitalist enclave that inspired the special economic zones that transformed China; London's Canary Wharf real estate project, with its subsidized skyscrapers; the principality of Liechtenstein, the world's quaintest tax haven; and the pseudo-independent South African Bantustan of Ciskei, which posed as a decentralized export center but relied on South African subsidies and the violent repression of labor activists by South African security forces. The author also spotlights libertarian settlement proposals that never materialized, including venture capitalist Balaji Srinivasan's scheme of "cloud cities" populated by shareholders, which Slobodian calls "a world of terms and conditions instead of rights and responsibilities." Throughout, Slobodian delivers harsh critiques of economist Milton Friedman, Silicon Valley anarcho-capitalists, and other theorists who envision, he argues, a world of fragmented micro-polities run by corporations and private contracts rather than democratic governments with the power to tax, spend, and regulate. Elegantly written and incisively argued, it's a convincing takedown of neoliberalism run amok. (Apr.)

A review of libertarian threats to democracy and a debunking of the myth that nation-states govern the world. In this richly documented exposé, Slobodian, professor of the history of ideas at Wellesley and author of Globalists: The End of Empire and the Rise of Neoliberalism, describes the thinking behind attempts to create pockets of unfettered capitalism that turn citizens into consumers and governments into afterthoughts. Free market radicals, writes the author, long for "an agile, relentlessly mobile fortress for capital, protected from the grasping hands of the populace seeking a more equitable present and future." This utopia is to be achieved using "zones of exception" where taxes are minimal, if not wholly eliminated, government regulations have been eviscerated, labor laws are nonexistent, and investors can conceal their assets. These duty-free districts, charter cities, innovation hubs, gated communities, enterprise zones, and tax havens currently number over 5,400 around the world, and more than 1,000 have appeared in the past decade. "Capitalism works by punching holes in the nation-state," writes Slobodian, so that the "the lineaments of a future society without a state [can] come into definition." The author draws on the ideas of such "neoliberal luminaries" as Milton Friedman, Paul Romer, and Balaji Srinivasan, noting their fascination with the political fragmentation of the Middle Ages and the capital-friendly confines of Hong Kong, Singapore, Liechtenstein, and Dubai. Slobodian also explains how their ideas have intersected with development corporations in London; the gated community of Sea Ranch in California, whose planner called it "a kibbutz without the socialism"; the opportunities posed by the dissolution of the Soviet Union; and the cryptocurrency fantasies of tech libertarians. Behind many of these anarcho-capitalists' most revered examples, however, are tightly organized authoritarian regimes, as opposed to government's absence. This, though, is simply another reason to reject democracy. An insightful piercing of the veil of nation-states to reveal capitalism's frightening, anti-democratic tendencies. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.