Book review : Democracy in small states : persisting against all odds

Abstract

The book provides a thorough analysis of a neglected field in political science, small state studies and international relations. I purposefully include international relations due to the wide scope of this research encompassing all parts of the world. This book is theoretically rich. The authors provide a comprehensive overview of the established literature and use it to examine their cases. At the same time, they engage in theory-building. I would also argue that the book is radical. It offers a powerful challenge to the existing precepts of democratisation theory. The authors do so by arguing that small states are exceptional and that is not enough to study or collect information about formal institutional setups and rules. They challenge the standard theoretical explanations that economic growth, cultural diversity, colonial legacy and institutional design, the presence of an institutionalized party system and geographic location have explanatory power when it comes to explaining why small states are more democratic than large states. These variables, according to the authors, explain neither the democratic successes nor failures, according to the findings.