 Imagine a country where the people are divided over what some government policy should be, half favour policy A and half favour policy B. Whichever policy is implemented, only half the people will get to live under the policy they want, and there doesn't seem to be much the government can do about it. However, suppose that in the western half of the country, a small majority favour policy A, while in the east, a small majority favour policy B. By splitting the one country into two, each can choose a different policy, and immediately more than half of the people get to live under the policy they want, and those in the minority can more easily migrate if they feel strongly enough about it. Within each of the two new countries, the same principles apply. By splitting them up further, each small region, city or community, can have its own policy, based on what the majority of people within that small region want. This way even more people get to live under the policy they want, and migration becomes even easier because everyone is closer to a border. With many small countries, some of them may reject both policies A and B, and go for policy C instead, or policy D, increasing diversity, choice and competition between countries. People can start to see the impact of each government policy in practice. Good policies will be copied and spread as people see what works and what doesn't. Two countries that have the same policy on one issue might have different policies on another issue. Where there are benefits to policy alignment across a large area, neighbouring countries can cooperate with each other on a voluntary, bottom-up basis. There is no need for them to surrender their sovereignty or merge their political institutions. Smaller countries have further benefits, votes become more meaningful, and political campaigns become cheaper. In large countries the base of the government can be far away, while in small countries it is always close by. This means that the politicians are more likely to be from the same culture or class as the citizens, and meeting or protesting against them becomes easier. Governments become more accountable to their citizens. Over time the size and role of government in each of these small countries could diverge greatly. Big government, small government, left wing, right wing, capitalist, communist, socialist, corporatist. The role of government in each country will be broadly determined by the preferences of the people in those countries, which could change rapidly when they see the success or failure of different governments in neighbouring countries. Not only government policies and roles, but also forms of government would be subject to experimentation and competition. Some countries may opt for representative democracy, others direct democracy, monarchy or theocracy. Some may reject the state altogether and choose voluntarism. Most of us wish we could change some government policy or change the role or form of the government we live under. Instead of endless debate and disagreements at the level of national politics, a better strategy for more of us to live in the kind of country we want would be for all of us to support the general principle that countries should be smaller.