There's the important question of what the state does, rather than just how much state you have in absolute terms of people employed or percent of GDP. Most of

There's the important question of what the state does, rather than just how much state you have in absolute terms of people employed or percent of GDP. Most of the world's "big governments" have fairly small deep security states (little surveillance, no secret police, no arrests without evidence, etc.), while the world's premier "small government" society has the world's most massive security state. This is not a coincidence! The more social hierarchy you wish to maintain with your state, the more violence your state must wield. When you want to eliminate systematized violence, on the other hand, you come to understand that you need to actively combat social hierarchies and inequality.