Tinyism can rescue Democracy

by Hank Pellissier

Introduction

“Tinyism” is a political point-of-view that believes humanity should be organized into small population micro-states to guarantee maximum democratic alliance to the needs of the citizenry. Historical examples include the 1,000+ city-states of classical Greece, and the 10–20 of the Italian Renaissance (both regions were financial and cultural centers of their era) Today the tiny nations of Andorra, Monaco, Luxembourg, San Marino, Singapore, Malta, Liechtenstein, Bahrain, and Iceland generally have “happier” inhabitants and high per capita income than their larger neighbors. Tinyism can be attained by fracturing today’s empires and large nations into a vibrant, pointillist map of miniature, citizen-empowered communities.

If Tinyism was adopted internationally, the result would be a world of 2,000-10,000 egalitarian micro-nations, optimally-democratic, and ideally connected in harmonious confederations.

Tinyism Benefits

The historical success of city-states in ancient Greece and Renaissance Italy was noted in this essay’s introduction. Earlier examples are found in the twelve Mesopotamia Sumerian city-states (4500–1750 BCE), and the 1,022 cities and settlements of the Indus Valley (3300–1300 BCE). Civilization, apparently, owes its birth to the dense micro-nation aggregates that Geo-Tinyism seeks to revive.

The emergence of Europe in the 16th century as the globe’s eminent power can also be viewed as a triumph of the tiny-state model. Although the small nations of Europe combine to form only 6.8% of the world’s total land mass, their imperialism from 1492-1914 led to the conquest of 84% of the planet. Many theories for Europe’s ascendency have been presented (disease, industrialization, gunpowder, etc) but added to this is the adrenal situation of multiple, closely-matched small states competing to survive, and be dominant, driven forward by entrepreneurs and inventors.

Fast forward to this startling statistic: all of the Top Ten Happy Nations in 2021 were lightly-populated. In order, they are: Finland - population 5,548,360; Denmark 5,813,298; Switzerland 8,715,494; Iceland 343,353; Norway 5,465,630; Netherlands 17,173,099; Sweden 10,160,169; New Zealand 4,860,643; Austria 9,043,070; Luxembourg 634,814.

“Happiness” is based on six characteristics: gross domestic product per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make your own life choices, generosity of the general population, perceptions of internal and external corruption levels.

Why are small nations frequently happier and more successful? Here’s a few reasons: 1) Small nations are politically faster at making decisions and altering course if needed, 2) the vulnerability of being small motivates many small nations in healthy ways, inspiring them to work harder and smarter, 3) the access to natural resources that large nations acquire is just distracting in the modern world, where “knowledge” and a skilled workforce is more valuable. 4) small nations are closely connected to their leadership. If Finland was ten times larger, the politicians would be detached from the populace, and corruption would infiltrate the system. 5) The superior social cohesion and unity enjoyed by small nations decreases crime. Nations with low violence and homicide rates include Luxembourg, Iceland, and Switzerland even though the latter has 30% gun ownership.

Even smaller-populated nations of Africa are often better off economically than their massive neighbors, afflicted with dozens of competing ethnic groups. Contrast the politics and economics of Cape Verde, Botswana, Namibia, and Seychelles with Dr Congo, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, for example.

Modern history is already trending towards smaller and smaller entities. Since 1945, the number of independent nations has tripled, thanks partly to the retreat of European colonialism, including the breakup of the Soviet Union (releasing 15 nations). Schisms include Namibia exiting South Africa, Czechoslovakia dividing, East Timor escaping Portugal and (finally) Indonesia, Montenegro and Kosovo leaving Serbia, and South Sudan breaking away. Secessions movements today are prolific: Catalonia, Scotland, Wales, West Papua, Flanders, and irritated US states, to name a few. Promoting Tinyism is merely acknowledging what is already naturally occurring.

TWO Associated Goals

For Tinyism to guarantee human happiness, four aspirations must be realized:

Democracy needs to be maximized in a future Tinyist world. Micro-nations can guarantee this better than large states, because 1) representatives are more accessible due to the minuscule populations, and 2) it is easier to install Direct Democracy in small nations, either via Town Halls or an e-democracy technological process. (The bottom-up, communalist democracy of semi-autonomous Rojava could also be emulated). A crucial understanding in a tinyist world is that every region in any micro-nation is guaranteed the option to secede and start their own, even more microscopic state. Civic authority in Tinyism would be mild; its primary power would be to fairly divide the land value tax revenue.

Peace is essential. The thousands of future nations will have conflicts, but they need to be resolved without violence or militarism. If armed attacks are even “on the table” as an option, the tiny states will descend into the same self-destructive belligerence and hair-trigger alliances that instigated two world wars.

Progressive values can best be attained by working towards the dissolution of large states into micro-