City-State Redux: Rethinking Optimal State Size in an Age of Globalization

Gaubatz Kurt Taylor
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Gaubatz Kurt Taylor: Old Dominion University

New Global Studies, 2009, vol. 3, issue 1, 24

Abstract: The Post-Cold War changes in the international system and the general march of globalization have led to a renewed interest in the optimal size of states. The most powerful theoretical models for understanding state size have come from models of the political and economic geography of cities. The classic Tiebout model has been used by a number of scholars to help understand the optimal area for the provision of a single abstract public good. I argue here for the use of the revision by Ostram, Tiebout, and Warren that emphasizes the polycentric nature of urban governance. This analogy better captures the variations in optimal size that may characterize different public goods. In so doing, it can help us better understand the simultaneous pressures for fragmentation and integration that are likely to characterize the twenty-first century.

Keywords: globalization; optimal state size; federalism; international organizations; separatist movements; political scale (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.2202/1940-0004.1032

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