Why Small Nation States are Better than Big Ones

I'm not very fond of nation states. I'd much prefer a clan based system with families being the largest unit of political power. The reason for this is that any political structure larger than the family will automatically tend towards oligarchy, a system where a few families dominate every other family.

The natural tendency of any family is to position itself as best it can inside the political structure available to it. This is because individuals care more about themselves and their immediate circle of friends and family than they care about more distant members of society. A nation state is therefore too large a unit to be governed fairly. People in power will inevitably use the power of the state to help themselves.

The larger the nation state, the more remote is the populace from the ruling class. The tendency towards grift will therefore increase with the size of the political unit. While politicians in a tiny state may feel responsible for the well-being of all citizens, politicians in larger states will be more focused towards powerful families at the expense of the general public. Politicians, like all other people, care less about the well-being of people remote from themselves than they care about close relations.

Additionally, politics tend to bring out the worst in people, often promoting criminals to high office while vilifying the honest and well-meaning. The larger a nation state, the greater is the supply of criminals. Smaller nations don't have the same supply of such people, and are therefore ruled to a lesser extent by sociopaths.

This is why small nations, while often quite conformist, are generally more free and peaceful than larger nations.

By Norbert Aepli, Switzerland, CC BY 3.0, Link