Editing Decentralization (section)

=== Free market ===
Free market ideas popular in the 19th century such as those of [[Adam Smith]] returned to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s. [[Austrian School]] economist [[Friedrich von Hayek]] argued that free markets themselves are decentralized systems where outcomes are produced without explicit agreement or coordination by individuals who use prices as their guide.<ref>[[Marvin Victor Zelkowitz]], Editor, ''Advances in Computers, Volume 82'', [[Academic Press]], 2011, [https://books.google.com/books?id=eFGi_414Y-cC&dq=%22free+markets%22+are+decentralized&pg=PA3 p. 3] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160528214504/https://books.google.com/books?id=eFGi_414Y-cC&pg=PA3|date=2016-05-28}}, {{ISBN|978-0123855138}}</ref> Eleanor Doyle writes that "[e]conomic decision-making in free markets is decentralized across all the individuals dispersed in each market and is synchronized or coordinated by the price system," and holds that an individual right to property is part of this decentralized system.<ref>Eleanor Doyle, ''The Economic System'', [[John Wiley & Sons]], 2005, [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ckz-4WbzlsgC&dq=%22free+markets%22+are+decentralized&pg=PA61 p. 61] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623224657/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ckz-4WbzlsgC&pg=PA61|date=2016-06-23}}, {{ISBN|978-0470015179}}</ref> Criticizing central government control, Hayek wrote in ''[[The Road to Serfdom]]'':

{{blockquote|There would be no difficulty about efficient control or planning were conditions so simple that a single person or board could effectively survey all the relevant facts. It is only as the factors which have to be taken into account become so numerous that it is impossible to gain a synoptic view of them that decentralization becomes imperative.<ref>[[Friedrich von Hayek]], ''The Road to Serfdom: Text and documents – the definitive edition; Volume 2 of Collected Works of F. A. Hayek'', edited by Bruce Caldwell, [[University of Chicago Press]], 2009, [https://books.google.com/books?id=qg61T_I1mwsC&q=F.%20A.%20Hayek%20Decentralization&pg=PA95 p. 94] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160515052215/https://books.google.com/books?id=qg61T_I1mwsC&pg=PA95 |date=2016-05-15 }}, {{ISBN|978-0226320533}}</ref>}}

According to [[Bruce M. Owen]], this does not mean that all firms themselves have to be equally decentralized. He writes: "markets allocate resources through arms-length transactions among decentralized actors. Much of the time, markets work very efficiently, but there is a variety of conditions under which firms do better. Hence, goods and services are produced and sold by firms with various degrees of horizontal and vertical integration." Additionally, he writes that the "economic incentive to expand horizontally or vertically is usually, but not always, compatible with the social interest in maximizing long-run consumer welfare."<ref name="Owen">[[Bruce M. Owen]], [http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/regulation/2007/7/v30n3-3.pdf Antecedents to Net Neutrality] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617120217/http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/regulation/2007/7/v30n3-3.pdf|date=2013-06-17}}, [[Cato Institute]] publication "Regulation", Fall, 2007, p. 16.</ref>

It is often claimed that free markets and private property generate centralized monopolies and other ills; free market advocates counter with the argument that government is the source of monopoly.<ref>* [[Tibor R. Machan]], ''Private Rights & Public Illusions,'' Transaction Publishers, 1995, [[iarchive:privaterightspub00mach/page/99|<!-- quote="Big Business and the Rise of American Statism". --> p. 99]] {{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W1WFgQLS-RcC&pg=PA99 |title=Private Rights and Public Illusions |isbn=9781412831925 |access-date=14 November 2015 |archive-date=26 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426054401/https://books.google.com/books?id=W1WFgQLS-RcC&pg=PA99 |url-status=bot: unknown |last1=Machan |first1=Tibor R. |publisher=Transaction Publishers }}, {{ISBN|978-1412831925}}
* Tibor R. Machan, editor, ''The Libertarian Alternative,'' Nelson-Hall, 1974 included Yale Brozen's, "Is Government the source of monopoly? and other essays", [[Cato Institute]], 1980; and [[Roy Childs]]' "Big Business and the Rise of American Statism", 1971, [[Reason (magazine)|Reason]].</ref> Historian [[Gabriel Kolko]] in his book ''The Triumph of Conservatism'' argued that in the first decade of the 20th century businesses were highly decentralized and competitive, with new businesses constantly entering existing industries. In his view, there was no trend towards concentration and monopolization. While there were a wave of mergers of companies trying to corner markets, they found there was too much competition to do so. According to Kolko, this was also true in banking and finance, which saw decentralization as leading to instability as state and local banks competed with the big [[New York City]] firms. He argues that, as a result, the largest firms turned to the power of the state and worked with leaders like [[United States Presidents]] [[Theodore Roosevelt]], [[William H. Taft]] and [[Woodrow Wilson]] to pass as "progressive reforms" centralizing laws like [[The Federal Reserve Act]] of 1913 that gave control of the monetary system to the wealthiest bankers; the formation of monopoly "public utilities" that made competition with those monopolies illegal; federal inspection of meat packers biased against small companies; extending [[Interstate Commerce Commission]] to regulating telephone companies and keeping rates high to benefit [[AT&T]]; and using the [[Sherman Antitrust Act]] against companies which might combine to threaten larger or monopoly companies.<ref>[[Gabriel Kolko]], ''The Triumph of Conservatism: A Reinterpretation of American History, 1900–1916'', Chapter Two: "Competition and Decentralization: The Failure to Rationalize Industry", Simon and Schuster, 2008, [https://books.google.com/books?id=jTyfQk1zMTYC&q=decentralization&pg=PA309 pp. 26–56, 141, 220, 243, 351] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160511084857/https://books.google.com/books?id=jTyfQk1zMTYC&pg=PA309|date=2016-05-11}}, {{ISBN|978-1439118726}}</ref><ref>Roy Childs, "[http://praxeology.net/RC-BRS.htm Big Business and the Rise of American Statism] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130130230406/http://praxeology.net/RC-BRS.htm|date=2013-01-30}}", [[Reason (magazine)|Reason]], 1971.</ref>

Author and activist [[Jane Jacobs]]'s influential 1961 book ''The Death and Life of American Cities'' criticized large-scale redevelopment projects which were part of government-planned decentralization of population and businesses to suburbs. She believed it destroyed cities' economies and impoverished remaining residents.<ref>John Montgomery, ''The New Wealth of Cities: City Dynamics and the Fifth Wave'', [[Ashgate Publishing]], Ltd., 2008, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5CCsHETenvMC&dq=Jane+Jacobs+decentralization&pg=PA2 p. 2] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160522041029/https://books.google.com/books?id=5CCsHETenvMC&pg=PA2|date=2016-05-22}}, {{ISBN|978-0754674153}}</ref> Her 1980 book ''The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty'' supported secession of [[Quebec]] from [[Canada]].<ref>Jane Jacobs, ''The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty'', (1980 Random House and 2011 Baraka Books), {{ISBN|978-1926824062}}</ref> Her 1984 book ''Cities and the Wealth of Nations'' proposed a solution to the problems faced by cities whose economies were being ruined by centralized national governments: decentralization through the "multiplication of sovereignties", meaning an acceptance of the right of cities to secede from the larger nation states that were greatly limiting their ability to produce wealth.<ref>Gopal Balakrishnan, ''Mapping the Nation'', Verso, 1996,  [https://books.google.com/books?id=hdrfDqF3fLoC&dq=Jane+Jacobs+Cities+and+the+wealth+of+nations+multiplication+of+sovereignties&pg=PA277 p. 277] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610105415/https://books.google.com/books?id=hdrfDqF3fLoC&pg=PA277|date=2016-06-10}}, {{ISBN|978-1859840603}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=Jane |last1=Jacobs|title=Cities and the Wealth of Nations: Principles of Economic Life|publisher=[[Vintage Books]]|year=1984|isbn=0-394-72911-0}}</ref>