Exit
Exit is leaving a system that is failing you, rather than staying to change it from within.
The basics
The term comes from the economist Albert O. Hirschman's book Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States (Harvard University Press, 1970).
Hirschman argued that when a firm, organisation or state declines, its members have two responses. They can leave, which he called exit. Or they can complain and push for change, which he called voice. Exit only signals that something is wrong. Voice can also show why. His general principle is that the easier exit is, the less likely people are to use voice.
Loyalty changes the sums. Loyal members may hold back from leaving. They tend to invest more in an organisation when they believe their voice will be heard.
Critics have argued that exit and voice can work together, that the model overlooks problems of collective action, and that loyalty can produce silence.
In crypto and parallel-society writing
At Y Combinator's Startup School in 2013, Balaji Srinivasan, whom Reason called a startup veteran, applied the same framework to countries. Reason reported his summary as "you can try voice or you can try exit." In a country, voice means voting and exit classically means emigration. Srinivasan also described exit more broadly as tools that let people "peacefully opt out" of bad policy without entering politics. He said "Exit amplifies voice", because visible departures draw attention. He predicted that 3D printing, Bitcoin and telepresence would make exit easier. Reason noted that his framework echoes Hirschman.
How it applies to Logos
The Circles handbook's "What is Logos?" page says: "All people should be free to exit hostile, corrupt, and inefficient systems."
The Logos manifesto, by Jarrad Hope, uses Hirschman's three terms. It calls for "a culture of resilient parallel societies" that raises the costs of surveillance and coercion while "minimising the costs of exit, voice, and loyalty." It also says: "If you do not agree with what you have consented to, you are always free to leave or remix."
The Logos homepage says "Basecamp is the tool for living outside existing systems." See Basecamp.
Examples
- East Germany, 1989. Mass emigration led people who stayed to protest in the streets. Wikipedia sums up Hirschman's later reading: "Exit triggered voice, and both worked in tandem."
- Latin American exile. Hirschman described rulers who encouraged critics to leave the country as using exit as a safety valve.
- State schools. When quality-conscious parents move their children to private schools, the voices best able to diagnose a school's decline leave with them.
Add an example: edit this section.
See also
Takes on this idea
None yet. See Takes.
Sources
- Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, Wikipedia
- J.D. Tuccille, Tech Should Make It Easier To Escape Government Control, Says Startup Veteran Balaji Srinivasan, Reason, 30 October 2013
- What is Logos?, Start a Circle
- Jarrad Hope, Logos: A Declaration of Independence in Cyberspace, logos.co
- Logos homepage, logos.co