Digital City-States
Context
Richard Hames:
"Today’s oligarchs and the tech titan corporations they own are the modern equivalent of mediaeval city-states. Self-contained and immensely powerful, they operate both within and beyond the framework of the nation. These digital city-states, like the powerful trading cities of times past, wield economic, cultural, and political influence that far outstrips their formal boundaries. And they are reshaping the world order in the process.
Historically, city-states like Venice, Amsterdam, Malacca, Constantinople, Bruges, and Carthage grew wealthy and powerful by dominating the trade routes, establishing monopolies for valuable goods, and negotiating with or outmanoeuvring larger empires. They were centres of commerce, innovation, and governance, with their own rules and armies of workers. Similarly, today’s digital city-states—Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and others—dominate not physical trade routes but the arteries of the digital economy. They control critical flows of information and commerce, making them indispensable to the global system. Their influence is so vast that they transcend the authority of the nation-states in which they technically reside, operating in a semi-sovereign manner."