COMPARING THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION TO A BUSINESS STARTUP. As a modern lawyer, who has done some drafting, I am impressed by the difficulties that the drafters of the Articles of Confederation faced. There can’t have been many previous examples of institutions formed by written agreement so there couldn’t have been much of a readily available “form file”.
Cowen makes an analogy to modern drafting methods in creating an institution. He says we should “think of the Articles as an early business plan or charter for a startup. The point isn’t to get everyone’s roles and responsibilities right on first crack, but rather to make sure that the institution survives and that continued growth is possible.”
Cowen concludes: “By this metric, the Articles were an unprecedented success.”