Casting the net – Small is Beautiful (sometimes)
1:08 pm - December 5th 2007
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Welcome to Casting the net, Liberal Conspiracy’s daily blog review.
Tiny States
I thought, for a change, we’d concentrate on a debate from the mainstream. Robin Lustig is the presenter of that late-night sanctuary, BBC Radio Four’s The World Tonight. At 10pm (weeknights), when everything on TV seems to be presented by Graham bloody Norton, The World Tonight offers 45-minutes of internationally-flavoured news and comment to soothe a news junkie off to sleep. Listig also writes a rather tidy little blog too, and yesterday picked up the baton from the FT’s Gideon Rachman, who wrote on Monday about the increased success of the world’s smaller countries (roughly around 10m people or less).
Rachman had made some good points (reader comments to the story via Rachman’s blog), highlighting international league tables where small countries lead: –
Look at almost any league table of national welfare and small countries dominate. The International Monetary Fund’s ranking of countries by gross domestic product per capita shows that four of the five richest countries in the world have populations of less than 5m. (The US – placed fourth in wealth-per-head – is the exception.) The Global Peace Index, produced by the Economist Intelligence Unit, ranks nations by criteria such as homicide rates and prison populations and it too makes pleasant reading for pocket-sized countries. The most peaceful place on earth is, apparently, Norway (quite cold, though) and eight of the 10 most peaceful countries have populations of less than 10m.
Hard to argue with hard data, but Lustig provides some caveats in his post, pointing out that many small countries suffer and that the recipe for a successful state is much more complicated than Rachman suggests: –
For every successful small state (Finland, Switzerland, Ireland), I can name an unsuccessful one (East Timor, Eritrea, Equitorial Guinea). I think I’d be tempted to leave size out of it and look elsewhere when trying to work out what makes some nations work well and others not.
Having decided geographical mass is not the single deciding factor, Lustig ponders what considerations are also important: –
Is homogeneity a useful attribute? (In which case, what about the US?) Are natural resources essential? (You might think it’s obvious, but what about Singapore? Yes, I know it’s got a harbour, but what else?) Equitorial Guinea has plenty of oil, but meets pretty much all the requirements of a classic failed state.
The context for this debate is of course the planned foundation of a new small – and incredibly controversial – state: Kosovo (Lustig is worried that Rachman’s optimism about the new Balkan nation is misplaced). Yet the debate could be easily widened to include arguments in favour of all Europe’s wantaway regions. Scotland, Basque and Northern Ireland are the popular causes we know all about, but struggles for independence exist all over Europe, especially in its South East corner. Would Scotland be a success? Will Kosovo? What about puny Wales, should it too seek independence from Westminster?
Lustig is right, the factors which dictate a nation’s prosperity are many. Regional stability and development, natural resources, weather, geography, religion, and population all have an impact on how a country can be managed. However, Rachman is right to point out that population is an important consideration, as his insightful anecdote proves: –
I remember visiting Palaniappan Chidambaram, who was then India’s trade minister (he is now finance minister), some years ago. Mr Chidambaram seemed a little depressed,so I asked what was bothering him. He groaned and said that he had been visited by Finland’s trade minister. This alone did not seem like a cause for melancholy, so I pressed him further. “Do you know what the population of Finland is,” he asked? “Five million. We have 5m blind people in India.”
Elsewhere
Westminster Wisdom – Peter Franklin on Blogs
vox – Successful assimilation of immigrants (via)
Shiraz Socialist – When the Left needs to remember why it’s there
Liberal England – Karpov tried to visit Kasparov in jail
anticant’s arena – Soft Centre
John’s Labour blog – Justice for Agency Workers?
The New Humanist Blog – 15-year-old girl lured into “vampire” cult
If you would like your blog or site to be considered as source material for future reviews, drop me an email at aaronh [at] liberalconspiracy [dot] org with the relevant url. I can then enter it into my RSS reader and monitor it for suitable content to be included. Likewise, if you have a specific article/post you feel deserves a little more traffic, get in touch.
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Aaron Murin-Heath is an occasional contributor. He is a writer based in Newark-on-Trent and Tallinn, Estonia. He is both socially and economically liberal. Aaron blogs at tygerland.net.
· Other posts by Aaron Murin-Heath
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Reader comments
Aaron,
What an interesting net you cast. Vampires and Chess Champions! Excellent stuff.
May I just remind people that East Timor was gained independence in 2002 after the referendum in 1999 and three years of UN administration. Thus its inclusion in these tables is always tendentious.
It is – always – the ‘forgotten’ genocide: at least a quarter of its population were killed during the Indonesian invasion and occupation from 1975-1999; use of traditional languages – versions of Tetum or the colonial Portuguese – were excluded from the public spheres of government and education; traditional forms of social organisation and religion were deliberately disrupted by the forced movement of villagers into ‘strategic hamlets’ as part of an attempt to cut off support for Fretilin- the independence movement; its history was ‘rewritten’; the transmigration of Indonesians -along with economic privileges accorded especially to the military – were intended to Indonesianise this former Portuguese colony which had never been part of Indnesia nor never claimed by any Indonesian nationalist movement.
Prior to independence, it was the poorest ‘region in Indonesia’ (in terms of their claim); it was and is the poorest country in Southeast Asia.
Portuguese colonialism and Indonesian occupation left an incredible legacy of mass illiteracy, economic stagnation, and serious health problems.There were no opportunities for ‘capacity building’ — of civic/democratic skills – aside from within the underground student movement and some parts of the independence resistance – and absolutely minimal opportunities for Timorese to gain access to managerial/administrative/economic skills as well.
One cannot overstate the degree of trauma the people suffered under the Indonesian occupation; I have yet to meet a Timorese who did not have a family member, relative, family member, neighbour or acquaitance killed. Many buildings – including churches – and spaces such as Santa Cruz Cemetery still bear the marks of the bullets that struck people down.
The UN claims its time as adminsitrator as a success story — but I do not regard it as such.
Nevertheless – despite these appalling and weak foundations, East Timor has survived and just about begun to progress. There have been appalling riots, serious problems of political maladministration and little economic progress — but it has stepped back from the brink of chaos and deserves our continued support.
It is economically and culturally ‘viable ‘ in the long term. It is exceptionally handicapped by its history, and there is much to criticise but …..
And yes I am the East Timor bore on the blogosphere –but someone has to remember them and remind people : )
douglas clark,
Why thank you. Eclecticism is something I aim for!
Elaine,
Very interesting.
And yes I am the East Timor bore on the blogosphere ~ Elaine
Sounds like the right person for a guest post!
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