What the government does is more important than how large the government is but it logically follows that a large government has more power, and thus a greater chance to abuse that power, than a smaller government does. It is an inescapable fact that a larger government has more people that make up that government, thus there is a higher probability that some of those people will have nefarious intentions and some of those people will act on those intentions. So it makes sense to me why people would clammor for smaller government. It's not impossible for a larger government to act in a more moral manner than a smaller government, it's just more probable that it won't.