Decentralism in Europe and America

"The coming peak energy will," among other things, "cause states to radically decentralize as they become less and less able to keep a complex bureaucracy," suggests Damien Perrotin — Peak energy and cultural fragmentation. The author, a Breton, makes this interesting comparison:

As the nation-state become less and less adapted to a world of increasingly scarce resources, it will be replaced by more local forms of governance. These structures, whatever they may call themselves will need some kind of legitimacy, however. Americans look very fond of talking about secession despite being quite homogeneous culturally speaking. European, on the other hand, are very wary of it. A Free Vermont movement, for instance, would be unthinkable in France, and even in areas where independence could have some legitimacy, it is rarely claimed.

[link via The New Beginning]