''The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society'' is an

Independent Institute The Independent Institute is an American libertarian think tank based in Oakland, California. Founded in 1986 by David J. Theroux, the institute focuses on political, social, economic, legal, environmental, and foreign policy issues. It has more ...

-published book, edited by

David T. Beito David T. Beito (born 1956) is a historian and professor of history at the University of Alabama. Beito is the founder and one of the key contributors to the group weblog Liberty and Power, which is located at the History News Network. He manages t ...

, about communities with private provision of municipal services. Contributors include Stephen Davies,

Daniel B. Klein Daniel Bruce Klein (born January 16, 1962) is an American professor of economics at George Mason University and an Associate Fellow of the Swedish Ratio Institute. Much of his research examines the works of Adam Smith, public policy questions, ...

, Robert C. Arne,

Bruce L. Benson Bruce L. Benson (born March 18, 1949) is an American academic economist who is recognized as an authority on law and economics and a major exponent of anarcho-capitalist legal theory. He is chair of the department of economics, DeVoe L. Moore Pr ...

, David G. Green,

James Tooley James Nicholas Tooley (born July 1959, in Southampton, England) is a professor of educational entrepreneurship and of education policy at the University of Buckingham. In July 2020 Tooley was appointed as the new Vice-Chancellor of the Universi ...

Fred E. Foldvary Fred Emanuel Foldvary (May 11, 1946 – June 5, 2021) was a lecturer in economics at San Jose State University, California, and a research fellow at The Independent Institute. He previously taught at Santa Clara University and other colleges. He w ...

, Donald J. Boudreaux,

Randall G. Holcombe Randall Gregory Holcombe (born June 4, 1950) is an American economist, and the DeVoe Moore Professor of Economics at Florida State University.Florida State UniversityEconomics Department faculty listing. Retrieved 2011-02-01. He is a Senior Fell ...

, Robert H. Nelson, Spencer H. MacCallum, and Alexander Tabarrok. It covers the topics of privatized provision of urban infrastructure, roads, planning, police, charity, medical care, education, and commercial regulation, particularly through examination of historical examples of this provision. Some criticisms of the book are that it does not adequately address situations such as the accident at Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, where private sector managers failed to install fire suppression equipment or leave the egresses unlocked (a common practice at the time), causing the death of around 146 employees; or the repressive nature of some private communities, including

Pullman, Illinois Pullman, one of Chicago's 77 defined community areas, is a neighborhood located on the city's South Side. Twelve miles from the Chicago Loop, Pullman is situated adjacent to Lake Calumet. The area known as Pullman encompasses a much wider ...

. However, the book has also been praised for its bibliography, which has many useful resources on privatization. Among the examples the book gives of private communities are the

private place A private place is a self-governing enclave whose common areas (e.g. streets) are owned by the residents, and whose services are provided by the private sector. The history of St. Louis, Missouri, and its near suburbs is significant in the devel ...

s of St. Louis and the

Central Manufacturing District The Central Manufacturing District of Chicago is a area of the city in which private decision makers planned the structure of the district and its internal regulation, including the provision of vital services ordinarily considered to be outside ...

of Chicago.

References

Books about urbanism Anarcho-capitalist books 2002 non-fiction books {{architecture-book-stub

See also

References