Thursday, March 25, 2010

Spontaneous Order, Institutions and "Role of Government"

Today's (March 25, 2010) entry under Current Events at Izzit offers an interesting opportunity to discuss how groups form rules and organizations (read institutions) on their own to solve problems. The rules and organizations then help members of the group to make choices.

This example deals with survivors of the earthquake in Haiti and how they have dealt with the chaos that has descended as a result of that catastrophe.

In my opinion, this represents a fine example of Hayek's "spontaneous order", referring to the way societies and groups organize what seems like chaos into an orderly process.

As you read more of the article, it appears that a form of government has been established. My sense is that, given Haiti's official government, the committee structure outlined may not differ a lot from the official. The participants may have made some changes to address shortcomings as they saw it, as well as the lack of infrastructure, but the potential centralization of power may reflect the official.

What do you think?

1 comment:

Kyle Fulin said...

I am for these organizations that have to solve their own problems and make their own rules. We are doing a lot to help the earthquake victims in Haiti, but they have also got to put forth some effort and help themselves. I believe that these organizations would be the perfect opportunity for these people to talk with each other and work out their problems.