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Abstract
The challenges of different forms of ethnonationalism and the simultaneous legitimation crisis of the politics of existing nation-states have revealed the difficulties the social sciences face in rethinking some of their basic concepts. With the accelerating globalisation of the economy, there has been a basic change in the state - society relationship and the role the state plays in controlling people's lives. The Pacific micro-states provide illuminating examples of the different ways this relationship has unfolded and the consequences of the variations for the lives of the people. The persistence and re-emergence of traditional political institutions, like chieftainship, is discussed from the perspective of the local - global relationship and its mediation.