The Size of Nations

This is an original and stimulating book. The authors's main point is that the size of nations is determined by a trade-off between the costs and benefits of size. Among the costs of large countries there is the difficulty of satisfying the preferences of a more diverse population. However, as they point out, some of these preferences can be accommodated through decentralization and federalism. That is the case in the US. I think that the reviewer below here who mentions Washington and Hawaii is not right. Public amenities are as good in Hawaii as in Washington these days because most public goods are chosen locally in the US (if you go to France things are still pretty different). But the real costs of joining the US for the Hawaians was loss of political independence. The original Hawaians had a very distinct language, culture, etc. and they would have chosen very different policies if they had been independent rather than a part of the US. And that, I understand, is the authors' main point: by expanding a country, you may end up with many people who have preferences that are far from the average preferences. That is a very good and general point, although the authors may have overstressed the link geography-preferences in order to get neat mathematical models, as economists always do. My overall impression from reading this fascinating book is that their story holds pretty well and explains a lot of what actually happened - and is still happening - in the real world.