When I heard the comment about "diseconomies of scale", it made me think that the phrase might apply to government as well as mercantile bodies, especially since those aren't mutually exclusive. For a long time, I've wondered about whether there might be limits to the effective size a state can expand to and expect to maintain stability; size in both the geographic and population meanings. Of course, size is probably secondary to social stability to unity of core social values, norms, and taboos.
When I heard the comment about "diseconomies of scale", it made me think that the phrase might apply to government as well as mercantile bodies, especially since those aren't mutually exclusive. For a long time, I've wondered about whether there might be limits to the effective size a state can expand to and expect to maintain stability; size in both the geographic and population meanings. Of course, size is probably secondary to social stability to unity of core social values, norms, and taboos.
Yeah, that must be true. It's the prototypical challenges of empire. We're not doing well on meeting those challenges, let's just say.