FOCJ
Encyclopedia
Functional Overlapping Competing Jurisdictions (FOCJ, also Functional, Overlapping and Competing Jurisdictions) is a moderate form of panarchy
advocated by Swiss economists Bruno Frey
and Reiner Eichenberger.
Under FOCJ, government operations are divided into multiple organisations each known as a FOCUS. FOCJ are:
Panarchy
Panarchy is a conceptual term first coined by the Belgian botanist and economist Paul Emile de Puydt in 1860, referring to a specific form of governance that would encompass all others. The Oxford English Dictionary lists the noun as "chiefly poetic" with the meaning "a universal realm," citing...
advocated by Swiss economists Bruno Frey
Bruno Frey
Bruno S. Frey is a Swiss economist and a professor at the University of Zurich. He may be best known for his critique of Homo economicus or economic man, arguing that it places excessive emphasis on extrinsic motivation rather than intrinsic motivation...
and Reiner Eichenberger.
Under FOCJ, government operations are divided into multiple organisations each known as a FOCUS. FOCJ are:
- Functional, as they deal with one matter only, such as education, policing, or roads.
- Overlapping, since the individuals or region covered by a FOCUS providing one function might be covered by multiple FOCJ in respect of another function.
- Competing, as FOCJ providing the same function compete with one another. For some functions, each individual may choose which FOCUS will apply to them; however, if the function is territorially bound, each town votes to select its FOCUS. For example, an FOCJ nation may have three police forces, with each town voting as to which of the three shall provide its policing.
- A jurisdiction, because a FOCUS is a separate political unit, and may, for example, levy taxes upon the individuals or towns selecting it.
External links
- FOCJ on the website of the Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of ZurichUniversity of ZurichThe University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....
(IEW, Uni Zürich)