Urbism also called Ultramunicipalism or Patchwork is a political ideology that seeks the maximum possible increase in City-States and Microstates in general. Ideally seeing a world in which every locality is its own sovereign state.
History
The first states in human history were formed primarily around urban and agricultural centres and were at first way smaller than the modern nation-state. A case in which a number of these states formed yet one state failed to conquer and subjugate all the other states can be considered the first examples of a working urbist system, as can be seen in Ancient and Classical Greece.
After the end of the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destinationRoman Empire examples of Urbist systems took hold in parts of Europe under Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destinationfeudalism and lasted as late as to the rise of modern nation-states during and after the Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destinationAge of Enlightenment. With the most famous examples being Germany and Northern Italy, but also including much of Eastern Europe before the expansion of Russia.
Patchwork systems largely declined after the rise of Nationalism and Colonialism (and fall of the latter) from 17th to 20th with nothing much left except for a small number of microstates scattered around much of the old world such as the 6 microstates in Europe and Singapore.
In the 21st century the notion of organising the world around city-states and microstates became popular among a number of political circles, including Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destinationLibertarian, Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destinationNeoreactionary and anti-nationalist circles. Notably including the right-wing blogger Mencius Moldbug who coined term "Patchwork" to describe system in which a a specific region is made up entirely of microstates.
Beliefs
In an Urbist system all localities on within a region have their own jurisdiction residing over them and primarily only them, in an even more radical version of this system this is even applied to the seas and oceans.
Arguments
A common for a patchwork system is the belief that market competition over competing states creates an incentive for good leadership over a polity, as such the opportunity to compete within a market framework should be maximised as much as possible. Under this argument Urbism is commonly combined with Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destinationNeocameralism, the belief that the state itself should be run for profit under a joint-stock framework.
Complementary arguments to the market argument are experimentation argument and liberty argument. The former is the belief that having multiple small jurisdiction rather than a large small leaves a greater opportunity and incentive for experimentation in policy allowing and allowing for good new policies to be implemented faster and the bad ones discarded faster. The Latter is the belief that a small state under competition has a lesser incentive to infringe on the rights of it's citizens than a larger state without much competition.
Another argument for ultramunicipalism is the belief that the nation is too much of an artificial unit to base sovereignty around as compared to the much more "real" unit of the city, and as such it would make more sense to base sovereignty on the city rather than the nation.
Strategy
The primary strategy for people who align themselves with urbism is generally taken to be unconditional secessionism at all times, supporting every secession movement and every single break-away state that there is, including those that are not ideologically aligned with the movement.
Another proposal for creating a society of independent city-states is seasteading, meaning creating new settlements in the sea away from the reach of current states.
Personality
Urbism as a character isn't usually portrayed in any unified character. Although he can, but doesn't have to be shown as an ethusiast for microstates currently in the world as an enthusiast for creating micronations.
How to Draw
Urbism's design was created by the discord user Kapitein Kanker#7156, on the Polcompball discord. The grey represents city infrastructure while the blue represents the seas on which city-states form on.
- Draw a ball with eyes
- Draw a diagonal line with rather dark grey on the ball
- Above the line draw fill with dark grey and below with dark cyan.
And you're done.
Relationships
Friends
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Hoppeanism - "EUROPE OF A THOUSAND LIECHTENSTEINS"
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Bookchin Communalism - Free Municipalities are ebig
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Distributism -Subsidiarity forever!
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Athenian Democracy - This guy gets it!
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Monarchism - All these principalities.
Frenemies
Enemies
- Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Globalism - Did I hear "global federalization"?
Further Info
Texts
- Patchwork: A Political System for the 21st Century by Mencius Moldbug
- City States – The Wave of the Future?
- Put Your Hope in Radical Decentralization by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
- A "European Empire" Won't Work by Ferghane Azihari
Wikipedia pages
- Citystate
- Microstate
- Micronation
- Urban Secession
- Independent City
- Localism
- Municipalism
- Libertarian Municipalism
- Seasteading
Examples
- Free and Imperial Cities
- Polis (Ancient Greek city-states)
YouTube Videos
- Why are there so few city-states? by City Beautiful
- City-States by KhAnubis
- Can London Be A City State? by KhAnubis yet again
- 5 Shades of Nationalism by Political Ferret
- Micronations - Countries in Countries by Derek Adam Thomas
- Let Them Leave! by John Stossel
- The Advantages of Small States and the Dangers of Centralization (Hans Hoppe) by V for Voluntary Library