One man nation

A one man nation or one-man nation, colloquially known as an egostan (from Latin ego + Persian -stan) or egonation — and referred to in New Secessionism as a model country — is a micronation that only has one active participant.

Terminology

The term egonation in the micronational community is dated to "at least 1997" according to the Sovereign Principality of Corvinia's "A glossary of micronational terms" web page.

The term one man nation has been used in the MicroWiki community since the early 2010s. Historically, some micronationalists argued that nations with one active participant but multiple inactive citizens were not true one man nations. The term egostan, which has derogatory connotations, started to be used in 2017.

In New Secessionism, a micropatriological theory from the late 2010s, a micronation is a micronation run by a group of people, and a model country is one that is not. This means that "model country" is effectively New Secessionist jargon for a one-man nation, although it is possible to have model countries that have a slightly greater number of active citizens (e.g. the Nation of Bedroom, which had two). Another related term is bedroom nation, which refers to a micronation whose territorial claim is a single room.

Perspectives

MicroWiki community

In the MicroWiki community, one man nations are generally seen as less developed than those with multiple active citizens. For instance, David's Micronational Potential Index, Dresner's System of Classification, the Economic Potential Index (created by Miles Bradley Huff), and the Patel McGrath scale, all measures of a micronation's development, award more points for having more citizens, disadvantaging one man nations. One man nations are also sometimes seen as less serious. For instance, Roscoe's Scale of Micronational Seriousness actively defines "One Man Nation" as the least serious form of government.

In July 2017, Mike Jones voiced the opinion that all MicroWiki nations should be considered de facto one man nations for diplomatic purposes, saying that, in diplomacy, "You are never dealing with the micronation. You are always dealing with the depressed, autistic weirdo behind the micronation."

Academic micropatriology

Cultural theorist Bronwyn Winter says that, for many micronations, "the nation is simply an extension of one individual".

Ralph Kober in 2018 analysed the Principality of Hutt River through Ryan Anderson's concept of aislamiento, a sense of geographical and psychological isolation that constitutes a place as an "island". Kober concluded that as Hutt River was in an isolated area and Leonard, Prince of Hutt River was happy to "maroon himself there", the micronation constituted an island, revealing the "deeply social and political nature of aislamiento".

List of one-man nations

Current

Nation	Founded	De jure or de facto	Notes
Royal State of Bagradoria	December 2021	Both	Bagradoria is accepting citizenship applications. There is only the King for now.
Saltanat Al 'Ahlamistan	25 Radjab 1442	Both	'Ahlamistan does not accept citizenship application.
Principality of Hosamia	August 2016	De facto	Hosamia used to have 16 members but all 15 either left or were granted independence, leaving only the Emperor and Wasil.
Tsalojdom of Birgeshir	January 2010	Both	Birgeshir was initially called "Single Citizenship" and later "Tsalojdom" but has always been de facto a one-man nation while opening its doors to new citizens. Starting from 2020, however, the Tsaloj no longer supports the idea of including other people in his micronation.
Empire of Ostreum	August 2017	Both
Ohio Republic	December 2017	De facto
Kingdom of Calcon	February 2015	De facto
Union of Wasteoftimeistan	December 2017	De facto	Joe is the current permanent resident although he has been declined citizenship on several occasions. There are 2 citizens of Wasteoftimeistan.
Paperis	August 2019	De jure
Agasymbia	July 2021	De facto	Agasymbia was founded as a "cultural and conlang project" by Shady Morsi,
Suttornland	January 2021	De facto
Saxrike	2018	De jure
Grayson Country	May 2022	De facto
Leprechia	June 2021	De Facto	On the imposing of Article III of the Revolutionary Pact, Leprechia became a one-man nation in July 2022. De jure, there are 3 citizens, but the other two aren't involved as much, so de facto, Leprechia is a one-man nation.
Unitaria	August 2022	De jure	The Constitution of Unitaria Act, 2022 establishes Unitaria as a constitutional egostan with only Rachel Burklandssen allowed to be a citizen. The Third Amendment to the Constitution of Unitaria (Allowed and Disallowed Citizens) Act, 2022 explicitly prohibits both human and non-human citizens other than Rachel Burklandssen while allowing Unitaria to have fictional citizens as part of a government worldbuilding project.

Previous

Nation	Period as one-man	De jure or de facto	Notes
Nemkhav Federation	2010–11	De facto	Also a fantasy nation in this period.
Grand Duchy of Prsänëa	Unknown	De facto
State of Sandus	Unknown	De facto
Saspearian	20 October 2017 - March 2019	De facto
Eden	14 January 2014 - 1 September 2016 1 May 2018 - 16 July 2021	De facto
Suttornland	January 2021	De facto

Historical

Nation	Period as one-man	De jure or de facto	Notes
Erusia	October 2008 – July 2010	De facto	In a project called the Lethler Experiment, Erusia's leader, Robert Lethler, pretended it was not a one-man nation and made elaborate claims about its history. The revelations about its true nature in 2010 were a major event in the history of the MicroWiki community.
Skovaji	August–October 2016	De facto	Final months of its history after just under two years of not being a one-man nation.
Kingdom of Secundomia	December 2009	De facto
Howetanese Republic	October 2014 – August 2016	De facto
Yusienia	November 2022– December 2022	De facto

See also

• YAMO
• Bedroom nation
• Serial micronationalist