Because of their physical size, large states are able to exercise more state-like power than geographically smaller states—and thus exercise a greater deal of control over residents. This is in part because larger states benefit from higher barriers to emigration than smaller states. Large states can therefore better avoid one of the most significant barriers to expanding state power: the ability of residents to move away.

It is not uncommon to encounter political theorists and pundits who insist that political centralization is a boon to economic growth. In both cases, it is claimed the presence of a unifying central regime—whether in Brussels or in Washington, DC, for example—is essential in ensuring the efficient and free flow of goods throughout a large jurisdiction. This, we are told, will greatly accelerate economic growth.

Foreword by Carlo Lottieri

Preface

Introduction: Universal Rights, Locally Enforced

PART I: BIG STATES, SMALL STATES, AND SECESSION

1. More Choices, More Freedom, Less Monopoly Power

2. Political Anarchy Is How the West Got Rich

3. Why Regimes Prefer Big States and Centralized Power

4. Why the Classical Liberals Wanted Decentralization

5. Secession as a Path to Self-Determination

6. Nationalism as National Liberation: Lessons from the End of the Cold War

For decades, when American readers have encountered the topics of secession and political decentralization, the discussion has generally been confined to a narrow range of topics around the American Civil War, American constitutional law, and race relations in America.

This book barely mentions any of those things.

The world is now, and has always been, politically decentralized. At no time in history has all of humankind been ruled by a single political regime. Although the Roman Empire claimed to be universal, the Romans never even conquered all of Europe, let alone the whole inhabited world. Roman power never extended to India, China, Sub-Saharan Africa, or the Americas. In other words, political power was never wielded from any single place by any single state.

Classical liberal tradition defends the right of secession on many grounds. One of the main reasons is that the territorial dispersion of power limits political domination much more than formal constitutions do. Small states cannot easily adopt protectionist policies and their political classes are closely controlled by the citizens; in addition, redistribution is more difficult and rulers have more direct information about their own reality. Besides that, nationalism is a nonsense in a tiny jurisdiction of only 30,000 people (as in the case of Liechtenstein).

In a word, the progress of a science is blocked because erroneous methodological principles prevail.
– CARL MENGER

This short appendix aims to address an important issue: How is it possible that the a priori categories of human action derived from human cognitive faculties (mind or spirit) coincide with the real world? In other words, how can the categories of human action provide insights into the real world?