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WELL DEVELOPED SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS AND A BOTTLE OF RUM. Forget Scandinavia, the people we should take tips from on building a fairer society are... pirates! According to a recent New Yorker piece by James Surowiecki, high-seas marauders had a functioning constitutional system:
Pirate ships were governed by what amounted to simple constitutions that, in greater or lesser detail, laid out the rights and duties of crewmen, rules for the handling of disputes, and incentive and insurance payments to insure that crewmen would act bravely in battle.Workers compensation:
The rules that governed a ship that the buccaneer John Exquemelin sailed on, for instance, provided that six hundred pieces of eight would go (pdf) to a man who lost his right arm.Separation of powers:
Pirates adopted a system of divided and limited power. Captains had total authority during battle, when debate and disagreement were likely to be both inefficient and dangerous. Outside of battle, the quartermaster, not the captain, was in charge—responsible for food rations, discipline, and the allocation of plunder.Social equality:
On most ships, the distribution of booty was set down in writing, and it was relatively equal; pirate captains often received only twice as many shares as crewmen.An independent judiciary:
when questions arose about the rules that governed behavior on board, interpretation was left not to the captain but to a jury of crewmen.
And free and fair elections:
The most powerful check on captains and quartermasters was that they did not hold their positions by natural right or blood or success in combat; the crew elected them and could depose them.Surowiecki wants this to be a metaphor for business leadership, but I think it's more applicable to our current government. George W. Bush: Worse Than Pirates. Yarrr. --Sam Boyd
