About This Site

Charter cities have the potential to dramatically improve the quality of life for billions of people. The underlying concept is very flexible. It could have many different applications, but the most urgent of these is to alleviate global poverty. Charter cities can do this by letting the world’s poorest families participate in and contribute to the process of economic growth that the world’s most fortunate citizens take for granted.

The concept of a charter city is designed for action and implementation. The practical details that arise along the way do force us to think more clearly, and from a new perspective, about the deepest questions concerning politics, governances, and social interaction. For the purposes of this site, the answers to these questions matter only to the extent that they drive action and implementation.

The primary function of this website is to explain the concept of a charter city at this practical level. Ultimately, as the community working on this concept grows, the site will also serve as a focal point for a discussion that refines and elaborates the concept and a resource for the people who will make charter cities come to life.

About Us

The ideas behind the concept of a charter city have very deep roots. These ideas have been recast in the specific form of a charter city by Paul Romer, an economist from Stanford. With the help of a small staff and a growing collection of volunteers, he maintains this web site and works to promote serious consideration of this idea at the practical level of implementation in specific sites and at the abstract level of academic analysis.

What to do next:

Read more about Paul Romer.
Read more about the concept of a charter city.
Watch a video of a talk that Paul gave at TED.
Read commentary about the concept of a charter city.
Look for answers to Frequently Asked Questions about charter cities.
Contact us.