Can Countries Become too Large

Date Written: 4/25/2023

Questions: (1) Can smaller political units contribute to the cause of liberty? If so, how?

Today basically everyone thinks that the larger the country the better. They think that a large country is necessary to be safe and economically prosperous. However, small countries do an equally good job at all those things or potentially even better. Small countries also come with one large benefit.

Must one be in a large country to be safe and secure? There are many historical examples that would suggest the opposite. Thousands of years ago, the small Greek city-states defeated the massive Persian Empire twice. Much more recently, federations of tribes in Afghanistan defeated the Soviet Union. No one has dared to invade Switzerland since Napoleon. Finally, how safe were the large countries France, Germany, Britain, Italy, and the Soviet Union in the 20th century? They were some of the most dangerous war-ridden places to be.

Large countries are also not a requirement for economic prosperity. The policies a country pursues is what will determine it’s prosperity. History and the real world do a great job of proving this once again. The Soviet Union was one of the largest countries on Earth, but it was also one of the poorest. Why is that? It pursued Socialist economic policies, so it destroyed it’s own economy. The tiny city-state Singapore has one of the largest most prosperous economies on Earth. This is because it has pursued capitalist policies that leave the population free. The Soviet Union was 30,935times larger that Singapore yet it would still have been poorer

If the United States was split up then it would also prove this point. If the states were separate countries, then Texas would have a larger GNP than Brazil. Florida’s economy would be larger than Australia’s or Argentina’s. Illinois and Ohio when combined would have a larger GNP than Canada’s. Clearly being a large country doesn’t guarantee prosperity. In reality, the main thing that matters are the policies a country pursues.

The Best Thing About Smaller Countries

The great benefit of smaller countries are that they are incentivized to be more free. When there are many small countries, those countries then have more competition for citizens. If one small country forces oppressive tyrannical policies upon it’s citizens, then those citizens will simply vote with their feet and move away. They can do that because the countries are small. They can easily move to another country nearby and the adjustment will be easy. The people in the new country will probably speak the same language and have similar customs, as both countries are geographically small and close together.

Imagine if the 50 states in the United States were broken up into 50 separate countries. The states aren’t that different from one another and moving in between them wouldn’t be difficult. This is how it would be if the world was made up of many smaller countries. Since the countries have to compete for their citizens they naturally want to impose less taxes and more free policies, so that they attract more people. If they impose tyrannical policies, all of their citizens will leave and they will have no one left to tax and then that government will collapse.

In the end, having large countries are not a requirement for safety or prosperity. History has proven this fact time and time again. Having many small countries can often be a better alternative. They are more incentivized than larger countries to be free societies, which is what creates prosperity.