A journey through small state governance

Abstract

The structures, behaviours and problems of governance in small states have always fascinated me. I attribute this fascination to the fact that I began my career of teaching and research in public administration in Tasmania, Australia's island state with its population of around half a million, and then had many opportunities to compare and contrast the Tasmanian system with those of other small and many much larger jurisdictions. Continuing that career in the Australian Capital Territory, a ‘quasi-state’ even smaller in population terms, provided other such opportunities and challenges. Drawing on this research experience, this paper looks first at the relationship between statehood and size. It then considers how a number of governance issues mostly related to structuring and operating the executive and legislative branches of government have been affected over the years by the smallness factor. The illustrations come mostly from jurisdictions that would loosely be regarded as belonging to the family of Westminster-style governments, however much that style has been adapted to accommodate the factor of smallness.