James Buchanan’s Question

James Buchanan asked his students the following question: "If a fly grew 9 times its current size, could it still fly?" The engineering of this question turns out to provide a negative answer. The fly could not get off the ground. But that was not the point. The point was to think of the analogy. If a state's fiscal system was currently working and we allowed it to double in size, tripple in size, etc., could the state still function? This is the question of the fiscal dimension. Can a state function at 9 times its current size? Buchanan's question seemed to imply an answer similar to the one about the fly. Do the social welfare states challenge that answer? I don't think so.

- Peter Boettke, commenting on the replicability of the small social welfare state models like Denmark to larger countries like US

I think the 3rd point made by Tyler that “concentration of power in a major city may account for some of the special properties of small countries” makes a lot of sense- geography is an important aspect we tend to ignore.