What’s the best country in the world?
My emotional response is that the United States belongs in the top spot.
But a more dispassionate analysis suggests that Switzerland is more deserving of the honor.
It has the 4th-freest economy according to the most recent rankings from Economic Freedom of the World, eight spots above the United States.
And it is ranked #2 in the Human Freedom Index, 18 spots higher than America.
There are several specific reasons why Switzerland is a good role model.
- It still maintains real federalism, and government is constrained when it takes place at the canton and municipal level.
- It has a lower burden of government spending, in part because of a very successful limit on yearly spending increases.
- The nation’s financial privacy laws, though weakened by foreign pressure, still provide some protection for human rights.
- There is a strong tradition of gun ownership.
Perhaps most important, the Swiss people are eminently sensible, as seen by their votes in favor of a spending cap and against class-warfare taxation, minimum-wage mandates, single-payer healthcare, and the death tax.
I’m not sure I would trust my fellow Americans to show similarly sound judgement.
So it’s surely true that there are lots of reasons to admire Switzerland.
Indeed, it’s such an attractive country that many people in Sardinia want to secede from Italy and have their island become a Swiss canton.
Here are some passages from a report in the Wall Street Journal.
“In Sardinia, people want to be Swiss.” Welcome to “Canton Marittimo,” or “Canton of the Sea,” a bid by Mr. Caruso, a 51-year-old dentist from Sardinia, and his comrade Enrico Napoleone, a car dealer there, to liberate Sardinia from Italy and tether it to Switzerland. …With a population of 1.5 million, the island, which lies between Italy and Spain, is today home to more than 10 parties calling for secession from Rome, emphasizing a culture, dialect, and history distinct from Italy’s mainland. …Mr. Caruso says…“Switzerland is the ideal nation to help us secure our culture and traditions.” … “Most of the local population would go for it, starting tomorrow,” said Matteo Colaone, a spokesman for Domà Nunch, a separatist group in the Italian regions surrounding Milan.
And what do the Swiss think about this idea?
At least one lawmaker likes the idea of adding cantons, though the government’s official position is not very welcoming.
In 2010, a member of Swiss parliament named Dominique Baettig proposed amending the constitution to aid regions in neighboring countries that want to become new cantons. Switzerland’s executive branch swiftly condemned it as “an unfriendly political act.” …There is little evidence the Swiss would want to adopt a rocky island that has many more sheep than people and per-capita economic output just one fourth that of Switzerland’s.
Here’s a video report on the topic from the WSJ.
In any event, it’s easy to understand why Sardinians are anxious to leave Italy and become part of Switzerland.
Here are some excerpts from a story in the U.K.-based Guardian.
“We think of Switzerland as a good teacher who could lead us on a path of excellence.” As the 27th canton, Sardinia, so goes the argument, would bring the Swiss its miles of stunning coastline and untapped economic potential. Sardinia could retain considerable autonomy, while also reaping the benefits of direct democracy, administrative efficiency and economic wealth.
Whereas staying in Italy means endless statism.
…their frustrations with inefficient public spending, complex layers of decision-making and intimidating bureaucracy can be heard throughout the country. …being a small businessman in Italy was “a continuous battle”. “It is fighting every day with a problem that the administration, the bureaucracy, creates instead of solves,” he said.
And while the Swiss government doesn’t seem overly excited about adopting Sardinia, ordinary Swiss citizens seem to like the idea.
An online poll of 4,000 people asking, in German, “should we accept Sardinia?” produced a 93% yes vote.
I suspect that an actual referendum in Switzerland wouldn’t be that lopsided, and the final result would probably depend on whether Swiss voters thought Sardinians were simply seeking good policy or whether they were looking for big handouts (Switzerland does have some redistribution from rich cantons to those with more modest incomes).
The bottom line is that there’s scholarly evidence suggesting that supporters of decentralization, self-determination, and limited government should favor the ability of regions to either declare independence or choose to join neighboring countries (assuming there’s a mutual desire for union).
That why I think secession or radical decentralization is/was the right approach in Ukraine, Belgium, and Scotland.
And as Walter Williams points out, secession can be peaceful, such as when Norway left Sweden early last century.
So I hope Sardinia moves forward.
Yes, it would be best for them to become part of Switzerland (and there already is an Italian-speaking canton). But even if the Swiss ultimately aren’t interested, the Sardinians at least would have a chance to escape Italy’s dysfunctional economic policies if they became independent.
P.S. The seven villages of Liechtenstein have the right to secede.
P.P.S. On a lighter note, here’s what would happen if the American right and left decided to secede from each other.
P.P.S. In our final postscript, let’s look at some fresh data about Switzerland.
Check out this chart (h/t: Constantin Gurdgiev) looking at how growth rates have changed in various European nations. As you can see, the 2002-2014 period has been grim for all nations compared to the years between 1980-2001. But Switzerland has had the smallest decline.
By the way, the left is always arguing that high tax burdens are necessary to help the poor. But as you can see from this chart (h/t: Fabian Wallen), every single income group is better off in low-tax Switzerland than high-tax Sweden.
In other words, big government is bad news for everyone (other than insiders), but it’s especially bad for poor people. Bono realizes that capitalism is the right model for upward mobility. Now let’s hope Pope Francis learns the same lesson.
[…] Given Switzerland’s relative success, I’m not surprised that there’s a movement in Sardinia to secede from Italy and become a Swiss […]
[…] Given Switzerland’s relative success, I’m not surprised that there’s a movement in Sardinia to secede from Italy and become a Swiss […]
[…] P.P.P.S. We should not be surprised that some folks in Sardinia would like to secede from Italy and join Switzerland. […]
[…] P.P.P.S. We should not be surprised that some folks in Sardinia would like to secede from Italy and join Switzerland. […]
[…] No wonder some people in Sardinia want to secede from Italy and instead become part of […]
[…] Some of the people in Sardinia have the right approach. They want to secede from Italy and become part of Switzerland. The Sicilians, by contrast, have the wrong […]
[…] No wonder some people want Sardinia to secede from Italy and become part of “sensible” […]
[…] helps to explain why I wrote that Sardinians should secede and become part of Switzerland (where a basic income scheme was […]
[…] makes me sympathetic to regional secession. See, for example, Scotland, Liechtenstein, California, Italy, Belgium, and […]
[…] is a big reason why I’m sympathetic to independence movements in place such as Sardinia, Scotland, and […]
[…] I’ve favorably written about secessionist movements in Sardinia, Scotland, and Belgium, largely because the historical data shows that better policy is more likely […]
I live in New Jersey, USA, and I’d like New Jersey to become a Swiss Canton. We should be so lucky.
[…] No wonder there’s discussion in Sardinia on leaving Italy and joining Switzerland. After all, the luckiest Italian people in the world are […]
With its warm Mediterranean climate, the island of Sardinia would be a wonderful addition to Switzerland. No wonder most regular Swiss citizens (as well as the islanders) think it would be a good idea.
Yet Swiss politicians seem to fear giving their people the option of living somewhere warmer yet staying in Switzerland. Is their climate any part of the reason why?
If it does become a Swiss canton, then Switzerland with part of it in the warm and beautiful Mediterranean immediately becomes a very, VERY desirable place to live…
[…] Heck, at least one Italian region is so dour about the nation’s outlook that it’spetitioning to be annexed by Switzerland! […]
[…] Heck, at least one Italian region is so dour about the nation’s outlook that it’s petitioning to be annexed by Switzerland! […]
[…] Heck, at least one Italian region is so dour about the nation’s outlook that it’s petitioning to be annexed by Switzerland! […]
I’ve long thought that a Swiss style confederation would solve the problem in many regions of the world, including the UK and the Middle East.
Since changes to the Swiss constitution require majorities in all cantons, Sardinia could vote how they like for themselves, and it wouldn’t affect other cantons. So no, Zorba, the Swiss wouldn’t be at all worried, while the richer Sandinians would likely move to another canton increasing the pressure on Sandinia to adopt economically intelligent policies.
A win-win all round.
[…] Secession in the Modern World: Should Sardinia Leave Italy and Join Switzerland? […]
Most important for Swiss exceptionalism is the fact that:
Switzerland, is part of the old world, not the new English speaking world who discovered new continents and had the serendipitous fortune of seeding those new lands with a freedom loving English minority who had little chance of prevailing at home, but was adventurous enough to seed the new world and create the most systemically prosperous countries on earth.
So, no, Switzerland is not part of that world, it is part of the old world. The old world who has had many many centuries to screw things up through coercive collectivism, yet… It didn’t. That is what makes Switzerland so exceptional indeed.
Switzerland is the antidote to Jefferson’s ominous prediction that “the normal state of things is for government to advance and for freedom to retreat”. Switzerland is perhaps one of the few counter examples to this general rule and observation. By contrast, America seems to be its confirmation. Confirmation of the voter-lemming’s self destructive and growth stifling attraction to coercive collectivism. Seems like it took two centuries for America to converge to the same level of coercive collectivism/size of government as the rest of the world — and its growth rate to converge to the now fast declining European welfare states, who cannot even match half the world growth trendline, ie deterministic decline.
It is this exception to Jefferson’s astute rule that makes Switzerland so exceptional.
Now, collectivists the world over, socialists, fascists, progressives, greens, and myriad other voter-lemmings who fly to coercive collectivism like the moth to the light… Make sure you put Switzerland at your crosshairs. For the Swiss are your true enemies. You may prevail and set back the world growth curve by several decades. But you will ultimately fail, because your war is a futile one. It’s a war against Darwinism and prevalence lof the fastest growing. It is a war against a faster way to the truly fabulous things that humanity will discover in the future.
So enjoy your small victories, like forcing the small Swiss free nation to capitulate to the OECD.
Just like England (and perhaps Holland and perhaps s few of the Nordic nations) at some point escaped coercive collectivism and charted a new free world, so will eventually one of the bigger economies start escaping coercive collectivism and form a new world of fast growing freedom.
But by virtue of the law of probabilities, it is unlikely that this country will be America. If anything the pendulum in America seems to be singing in the opposite direction. Towards Jefferson’s dire prediction. Various coercively collectivist and rising ideologies seem to have grabbed American voter-lemmings by the cojones.
Mobility and an international horizon seems the best approach at the personal level. Worse come to worse, most people will feel freer in Dubai where their occasional criticism of the Emir is suppressed, than in France where day in day out in your entire life you have to work more than half your day for the social collective of distant unknowns.
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Sardinia as a canton?
As as Swiss I’d be terrified of adding over a million federal voters who grew up in Italian collectivism. The likely cry of the Sardinian voters will be: “Nice prosperity. Now let’s start sharing it. Let’s get the federal Swiss government to grow until it consumes half of GDP, ‘come mamma Italia!'”
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Pope Francis?
I think the smoke the conclave emitted at his election was probably red.
Switzerland is to other countries what Rolls Royce used to be to other cars: expensive, but you get what you pay for.
The best investment is to move to a country that is under-estimated, because nobody has yet taken notice of it; or else because other people can’t stand the cold or the darkness or the rain or the humidity or the isolation or whatever, and you can.
Geographically this wouldn’t really make sense but I do appreciate the economic and political logic of it.