Lilliput Federalism: Profiles and Varieties

Abstract

Although federal states as a rule are big states, this is a rule with exceptions. Several federations are middle-sized or even small, and among them are indeed four microstate cases, namely Belau, Comoros, Federated States of Micronesia and St Kitts-Nevis. These diminutive polities satisfy reasonably well the usual criteria and attributes of federal states, but represent deviations from the American federal model, characterized, according to Alfred Stepan, by coming-together federalism, symmetry and demos-constraining political consequences. Whereas microstate federalism is predominantly symmetric and demos-enabling, more than coming-together it stands for holding-together and putting-together varieties of federalism.