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In the Balance: Scotland's Future?

06/09/2014

Scotland's Future?

BBC World Service - In the Balance, Scotland's Future?

What makes a strong independent nation and does size matter?

What makes a strong independent nation and what lessons can be learnt from succession movements around the world?

In just over a week Scotland will go to the polls to decide whether it will become an independent nation. Historically independence has tended to have been won through conflict and war, so it is quite unusual for a nation to have the opportunity to vote on whether to go it alone.  

This programme discusses the economics of independence. What makes a strong independent nation and what lessons can be learnt from succession movements around the world? 

Justin Rowlatt speaks to Igor Stiks of the University of Edinburgh, who lived through the break up of former Yugoslavia and Maya Tudor of the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, who has studied independence movements in Asia. 

This all leads to an obvious question - when it comes to countries, does size matter? Justin discusses this with Alberto Alesina, the Nathaniel Ropes professor of political economy at Harvard University and co-author of the Size of Nations and Michael O'Sullivan, chief investment officer at Credit Suisse, who recently wrote a research document on The Success of Small Countries.

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