This article explores the challenges faced by middle-sized nations in the contemporary world, using Elon Musk's recent actions towards Britain as a case study. It argues that a country's size can significantly impact its ability to govern effectively and maintain its standards in the face of global pressures.
Notice that it isn’t the prime minister of Greece or Lithuania that Elon Musk is tormenting. The stakes would not be high enough for him. Nor has he posted mean things on X about the leaders of China. There is too much to lose in that colossal market. No, it is Britain, like Germany, that is optimally sized for an intervention: countries big enough to arouse general interest, but not so big as to make or break a plutocrat’s fortunes.
Their middling status is what exposes them to the rocket man’s curiosity (which appears to have wandered somewhat from procurement reform in Washington). In other words, the problem here is that Britain is exactly the wrong size. And this wouldn’t be the first time. Perhaps one of the worst handicaps a nation can have in this century is medium scale. Of the states that tend to be rated the most efficient in the world, some are democratic, such as Finland, and some aren’t, such as the UAE. Some are western, such as New Zealand, and some aren’t, such as Singapore. The linking theme is that most have small populations. This “shouldn’t” be true. In principle, 50mn people are no harder to serve than 5mn, assuming the civil service itself is commensurately bigger. Yet here we are. With respect to Noble Rot and other honourable exceptions, a rule of dining out is that no restaurant can maintain its standards once it expands beyond a certain point (two outlets, I suggest), even if management grows with it. A similar discontinuity often governs, well, government. How come? Perhaps the feedback loop between policies and results is quicker when most citizens live in a tight, observable radius. Or perhaps small nations aren’t too proud to roam around for ideas. (It remains a staple of British thought that two healthcare models exist on Earth: ours and America’s.) Either way, a sub-10mn population seems to enable — though far from assure, as Libyans can confirm — a certain slickness. And not just in the public real
Politics Globalisation Governance Nation-States Size
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