Passionately Promoting A More Perfect World

Now suppose trade barriers are reduced. This shifts the equilibrium: it is now possible for people to be part of the same economic area, without having to be part of the same political entity. They are able to trade with one another without having to agree on politics. This means that the economic benefits of large markets can now be reaped without incurring the political cost of heterogeneity. Consequently, the optimal size of a political entity falls.
[…]
This is an exact reversal of the conventional rationale for EU-federalism, which holds that globalisation makes larger political entities necessary. Au contraire: it is the very globalisation that makes smaller political entities viable.

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Kristian Niemietz, Why Europhiles and Eurosceptics don’t understand each other (2012)

@sinesalvatorem

(via maklodes)

Eh, sort of. If you care about regulations, globalisation requires that super states swallow all corners of the now-expanded market in order to regulate them. However, if you aren’t pro-regulation, globalisation does indeed allow a dramatic decline in optimal country size.

(Source: profitmaximiser, via maklodes)