Size and Personalistic Politics: Characteristics of Political Competition in Four Microstates

Abstract

Statistics demonstrate that small states are more likely to have democratic systems of government, which—based on Dahl’s conceptualisation of polyarchy—entails the presence of contestation for public office in these countries. In the absence of comparative, qualitative in-depth research on microstate politics, it is, however, largely unclear how size affects the more practical nature of political competition. In this article, the characteristics of political contestation in four microstates around the globe (two of them within the Commonwealth) are examined and compared. The results indicate that whereas the studied microstates of San Marino, St Kitts and Nevis, Seychelles, and Palau have markedly diverging political institutions (e.g. electoral systems and party systems), owing to their small size, in all four of them political contestation is essentially personalistic in nature.

keyWords:

• political competition
• microstates
• size
• political parties
• personalistic politics

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. This research was facilitated financially by the Netherlands Institute of Government and the Leiden University Fund.

Notes

1. There is an impressive volume of academic literature that deals with the conceptualisation and operationalisation of state size, and the classification of small states and microstates (e.g. Taylor, 1969; Downes, 1988; Crowards, 2002). As there is no agreement in the literature about what constitutes a small state or a microstate, and due to the fact that any cut-off points in size are inherently arbitrary, these classifications are always somewhat ambiguous. For the purpose of the present analysis, a microstate is defined as a UN member state with less than a quarter of a million (250,000) inhabitants, which results in a group of 21 countries.

2. Whereas San Marino is located in continental Europe, St Kitts and Nevis forms part of the Eastern Caribbean region. Seychelles is situated in the Indian Ocean to the east of Africa, and Palau is located in the Pacific island region of Micronesia.

3. In virtually all contemporary representative democracies, political contestation is manifested in the form of competing political parties. According to many scholars, representative democracy is actually ‘unthinkable, save in terms of political parties’ (Schattschneider, 1942, p. 1). As the microstates that are analysed in this article are also representative democracies, an analysis of the formal and institutional nature of political competition logically focuses on their political parties and party systems.

4. Several scholars highlight that this is especially the case in small multiethnic and multilingual states. As smallness and insularity tend to reinforce the formation of identities, ethnic and linguistic fragmentation constitute an even greater threat to stability in small states than in larger states (Doumenge, 1985, pp. 87–90; Lowenthal, 1987, pp. 40–41).

5. Particularism is the umbrella term for individualistic relationships between citizens and politicians that are based on the provision of material goods in exchange for political support (in the form of votes). Clientelism and patronage are the two most common manifestations of particularism (cf. Kitschelt, 2000, pp. 849–850).

6. In the analytical sections of this article (third and fourth sections), I shall occasionally use my interview data in the form of quotes to illustrate my arguments. On the instigation of my respondents, and precisely because of the social intimacy and multiple role relations in small states, I have decided not to disclose the names of the professions of the respondents.

7. This classification is rudimentary, as all of these systems have their own context-dependent idiosyncrasies. For example, in St Kitts and Nevis a small number of non-elected MPs are appointed and added to the elected ones, and in Seychelles about one-quarter of MPs is elected by means of proportional representation.

8. As such, San Marino was the only country in Western Europe with a (democratically elected) government that included communists.

9. The party did, however, change its name twice; first to SPPF (Seychelles Peoples’ Progressive Front) in 1978, and then to Parti Lepep (Creole for ‘People’s Party’) in 2006.

10. Translated from Italian: ‘Purtroppo, differenze ideologiche non ce ne sono molte. Penso, ad esempio alle divisioni nell’area socialista, al fatto che oggi siamo tre partiti di area socialista; e sono dovute ai rapporti personali … All’interno di una realtà come la nostra, i rapporti personali incidono molto sulla politica, e sopratutto incidono anche nella formazione di governi’.

11. Griffin (1994, p. 235) states that ‘the Labour Party defined the political battle along class lines … The task of the opposition, consequently, was quite formidable—erasing the stigma of being elitist in a society that was overwhelmingly rural and working class’.