Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

We are straying a bit off topic here. I don't think any country has been stable for a "few" hundred years. A few is 3. This is before the US was founded.

I would say a stable country is one which has had a legit democracy for 70 or so years and doesn't share a border with a non-democratic / non-legit-democratic state. These two points suggests its unlikely to have a revolution or be invaded any time soon.

Of course, if you look at the UK governments track record with IT.. you wouldn't trust it. I would say the same with the US, especially in concern with data security.



I think I could argue that England has been pretty stable since at least the end of the Civil War - which is 360 years ago. A lot of the institutions that form part of the current UK go back an awful lot further than that.

[NB I'm not English]


I'll reject your democratic requirement out of hand, as democracies haven't proven particularly stable. There was that trial-run in Athens which lasted 501 years (508 - 7 BCE, with interruptions). Other than a few small/outlying instances (most notably the Althing in Iceland, it didn't re-emerge until the short-lived Corsican Republic (1755), and of course, the United States (1776).

Japan (660 BCE) and China (221 BCE) have both had feudal / bureaucratic governments exhibiting very high levels of stability. While dynasties and eras are marked, the overall states persisted largely intact.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: