Can small countries exist?

[expat]

Norway
Denmark
New Zealand
Portugal
Ireland
Finland
Switzerland
Austria
Luxembourg
- every one a small country with a bigger neighbour.

Do you really believe that every one suffers from being a small country, and that the people of every one want to be part of that bigger neighbour?

[Rantor]

Norway
Denmark
New Zealand
Portugal
Ireland
Finland
Switzerland
Austria
Luxembourg
- every one a small country with a bigger neighbour.

Do you really believe that every one suffers from being a small country, and that the people of every one want to be part of that bigger neighbour?

Nope, but most of them (maybe not NZ or Switzerland so much) are/have been economically bound to the surrounding bigger countries.

BTW - this is a common straw man argument put up by the flemish nats - next argument is usually small countries prosper in the 'europe of regions' or something like that.

Do the scotsnats use the same arguments?

[tay]

Yes small countries exist.

[expat]

Nope, but most of them (maybe not NZ or Switzerland so much) are/have been economically bound to the surrounding bigger countries.

BTW - this is a common straw man argument put up by the flemish nats - next argument is usually small countries prosper in the 'europe of regions' or something like that.

Do the scotsnats use the same arguments?

They do. Personally I use it mainly as a negative argument (in a good sense): that is, to counter the frequent assertion that a small country could not survive on its own. I don't know if it would prosper more, but it could survive, and so the choice can be left to its people whether they prefer that.

As Schumacher said in Small Is Beautiful a long time ago, if any of Germany's attempts to absorb Denmark had been successful, we would now be saying that Denmark could never be viable on its own, and Copenhagen would just be a county town.