Exploring sub-national island jurisdictions

Abstract

Sub-national island jurisdictions (SNIJs) manifest diverse expressions of govern- ance within typically asymmetrical relationships with a much larger state. Dubbed ‘federacies’ in the literature on federalism, these bilateral systems of self- and shared-rule arise almost exclusively on islands. The jurisdictional powers that island federacies enjoy are principally a result of bilateral negotiations between island political elites and a (usually benign) metropole. This bargain is struck against the backdrop of a particular colonial inheritance, a local ‘sub- nationalist’ culture, and the varying ambitions of local elites to win jurisdictional powers to advance ‘sub-national’ territorial interests. At other times, however, island autonomies arise as crafted, deliberate devolutions of central governments eager to exploit islands as ‘managed’ zones for economic or security-related activity in a globalised economy. In either case sub-national autonomies often show more success and resilience as non-sovereign island jurisdictions than their sovereign island-state counterparts.