by Martin L Buchanan

A quarter way through the 21st century, with knowledge and technologies that would be magic to men of even a hundred years before, politics is still medieval.  The old methods returned: wars of conquest, bread and circuses funded by debased currencies and unpayable debt, and murder or jail for unwanted speech.

In 2023, yearning for the world of liberty that I sought for more than five decades, I contemplated how our difficult present could develop into that world, concluding it would happen only after “… the Great Inflations and Great Defaults, the Third World War, and the Fourth World War.”

In that future world, libertarians lead the creation of the Concordat, a world constitution, and the Share, a world limited government.

Reading that, dear reader, let us be skeptical together.  As every historical and current government tends toward despotism, to constrain our liberties with a universal government, which by definition has no competition, appears insane.

However isn’t our present of competing and sometimes warring despotisms called nations also insane?  Imagine government contrained, very constrained.

“Laws with criminal or civil penalties must be approved by three fourths of all people and can be repealed by one third of all people.”  Unlike representative democracy, its pale and neutered cousin, direct democracy in a free society can be a crucial safeguard for liberty.

“Most Share revenues come from voluntary levies.”  Government’s constant claim is that its benefits justify its costs.  If so, it will have voluntary support.  The only taxes are Pigovian (on negative externalities).

“The Share is not allowed to borrow money, lend money, subsidize loans, guarantee loans, engage in banking, or issue money.  The Share is not allowed to subsidize private businesses.”  If debt had been prohibited to our current governments, we would not be expecting them to collapse into sovereign default in coming years.

Those quotes are from Concordat: A Brief Utopia, my 2023 novel.  A century in the future, a man from our time wakes up in a worldwide society of peace, ecological sanity, liberty, justice, and abundance.  He and his host family travel widely on Earth and as far as the Moon, thus Worlds of Liberty.

To continue in the vein of specifics, describing a dozen other limits on government, or an expansive bill of rights, would be tiresome.  Read and judge for yourself.

In writing the book, I sought certain literary virtues: to make an attractive case for a classical liberal society to those who are not already libertarians, to show a future world as well as talk about it, to be family-friendly and suitable for children from age 10 as well as for adults.  Brevity is another virtue, less than 30,000 words and an easy read.  The print edition includes an index, unusual for a novel but useful for a novel of ideas.

Book Availability

Concordat: A Brief Utopia

UK link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Concordat-Brief-Utopia-Martin-Buchanan/dp/B0C1JDKPPW/

£12.00 paperback or £4.00 ebook
ISBN-13: 979-8389006157
published in 2023
fiction, 29,939 words in the body of the book
paperback, 220 pages including index

USA link: https://www.amazon.com/Concordat-Brief-Utopia-Martin-Buchanan/dp/B0C1JDKPPW/

As of 11 September 2025, the paperback book and ebook are available in Amazon’s UK, USA, Canada, Philippines, and Australia marketplaces, all countries where English is a national language.

In France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden, both editions are available in English but not in the various national languages.  In Brazil and India, only the English ebook is available.

Author Background

Martin became a libertarian in 1970, is a Life Member of the Libertarian Party, led the 1990 Oregon school choice initiative campaign, and represented the LP twice as a Congressional candidate.

He was a software engineer f0r 30 years and wrote computer manuals for 15 years.  Martin has written one non-fiction book, several policy papers, and 64 newspaper columns.  This is his first novel.  Reach him at MartinLBuchanan@gmail.com.