第14章 競争, n.4 - 事業の性質による,組織の適切な規模
他にも,広大な地域(対象領域)のもつ強み(advantage 有利さ)がまだ十分に活用されてこなかった方面がいろいろある。たとえば,初等教育は,政府製作の教育映画や,BBCによる教科放送によって,活気づけたり改善したりできる可能性がある。そのような映画や教科が国際的な権威(当局)の手で用意することができればよりいっそうよいであろうけれども,それは目下のところユートピア主義的な夢である。民間航空(civil aviation)も国際的なものでないと無力である。大部分の目的のために,大きな国家は小さい国家よりもよく,いかなる国家も,世界的な規模をもたなければ,市民の生命の保護という第一の目的さえ十分に果しえないことは,明らかである。 |
Chapter 14: Competition, n.4Technical considerations, broadly speaking, have led to an increase in the optimum size of organizations suitable for dealing with a given matter. In the seventeenth century, roads were dealt with by parishes; now, they are controlled by County Councils largely financed and supervised nationally. Electricity can be best utilized by an authority controlling a considerable area, particularly where there is some important source of power, such as Niagara. Irrigation may demand a work like the Aswan dam, of which the expense is prohibitive unless the area controlled is very large. The economies of large-scale production depend upon control of a market sufficient to absorb an enormous output. And so on.There are other directions in which the advantages of large areas have not yet been fully utilized. Elementary education might be enlivened and improved by government educational films and by lessons broadcast from the B.B.C. It would be still better if such films and lessons could be prepared by an international authority, though at present this is a utopian dream. Civil aviation is crippled by not being international. It is obvious that, for most purposes, large States are better than small ones, and that no State can adequately fulfil the primary purpose of protecting the lives of its citizens unless it is world-wide. |