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… is from page 444 of Berkeley law professor Robert Cooter’s excellent 1994 article in the Southwestern University Law Review, “Decentralized Law for a Complex Economy [2]“:
Many intellectuals believe that centralized law is inevitable, just as they once believed that socialism is inevitable. In fact, centralized law, like socialism, is not plausible for a technologically advanced society. The forces that reversed the trend towards socialism and destroyed central planning are also undermining legal centrism. An advanced economy involves the production of too many commodities for anyone to manage or regulate. As the economy develops, the information and incentive constraints tighten upon public policy. These facts suggest that, as economies become more complex, efficiency demands more decentralized lawmaking, not less.