I’ve been wondering about how well a lot of American states could function if they where fully independent states. I’m not thinking every state would be it’s own country but states banding together and becoming there own countries. An example of this California, Oregon, and Washington.
I’m thinking that kind of like the Fediverse it is easier to manage and do more the people on a smaller scale.
What do others think of this?
Communities are much better at identifying and coming up with solutions for their own needs than a faraway capitol could ever be. Linking communities by bioregion (instead of existing state lines) and having them cooperate to make larger decisions would be a workable alternative.
You might find interesting: Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott, The Next Revolution by Murray Bookchin and others.
If by bioregion you mean geographical features, like rocky mountains and rivers and such, let me give you a warning. It might seem like a straightforward way to do things, but it can lead to discontentment among the people. For example, in europe, in the southern alps, there’s a region called “tirol” with a relatively homogenous culture. unfortunately, a big mountain range ran right across the region, dividing it in two - “northern tirol” and “southern tirol”. when WW2 was lost, the region got re-divided and split up along the geographical borders, instead of the cultural borders, so the region was torn in two. people are still pissed about this, a hundred years later.
so, you might want to ask the actual population living there for their opinion and respect that.
Fair warning! This is what I meant, but of course culture is worth taking into account : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioregion
interesting! the landscape definitely influences the humans that live there, but i think besides plant and animal species, also things like the proximity to the sea (for shipping trade) plays an important role. the sea connects more than it divides, so regions close to the sea are natural global traders. Consider england (which is one huge island) was historically the country with the biggest navy, that sailed all across the world, to india, to china, and had lots of exchanges that way. so yes, landscape does something to the way humans live, but it’s not just plants and vegetation, it’s mostly the landscape formation, i guess.