[sargon]

"But do you really think that an exceptionally decentralized form of government would have survived into the 21st century?"

---

Actually, yes. Switzerland has lasted far longer and survived quite nicely into the 21st Century.

Apples and oranges.

Switzerland has several characteristics which render its situation qualitatively different from that of the United States. Switzerland is much smaller in terms of geographic size and population, and there is also a much greater degree of ethnic and cultural homogeneity. The United States was also a growing nation with an expanding frontier which incorporated new territories periodically.

Having said that, your thesis isn't necessarily false, but the prevailing conditions in Switzerland—versus the United States—were sufficiently different that similar outcomes couldn't be automatically expected.

[DiogenesLamp]

Switzerland has several characteristics which render its situation qualitatively different from that of the United States. Switzerland is much smaller in terms of geographic size and population, and there is also a much greater degree of ethnic and cultural homogeneity. The United States was also a growing nation with an expanding frontier which incorporated new territories periodically.

Having said that, your thesis isn't necessarily false, but the prevailing conditions in Switzerland—versus the United States—were sufficiently different that similar outcomes couldn't be automatically expected.

This is odd, because it was from Switzerland that the framework of our own ideas of Republicanism emerged. Vattel put forth the idea that a collection of states could unite and form a Republic. We even borrowed their word "Citizen" instead of using our own well known term "Subject."

In 1776, the only other Republic in the World was Switzerland. All others nations were monarchies.