by George Agbesi & Joshua D. Ammons
Nothing distinguishes more clearly conditions in a free country from those in a country under arbitrary government than the observance in the former of the great principles known as the Rule of Law. — F. A. Hayek
At one point, Gordon Tullock thought taxi medallions were inefficient but intractable institutions, a classic example of what he called the transitional gains trap. The medallion system persisted not because it served the public, but because the rents it generated were capitalized into medallion prices, making any reform politically impossible. Then came Uber, and within a matter of years this supposedly permanent institution crumbled. What if a similar technology shock could do the same for societies lacking the rule of law?
[Click here to read the entire essay]
George Agbesi is a student and Research Assistant at the Stephenson Institute for Classical Liberalism, Wabash College. Joshua D. Ammons is Scholar-in-Residence at the Stephenson Institute for Classical Liberalism, Wabash College. Send Joshua mail at ammonsj@wabash.edu.
Isonomia Quarterly 