Democracy, façade or somewhere in between? An exploration of Vanuatu, Kiribati and São Tomé and Príncipe

Abstract

Freedom House holds that small archipelago states such as Vanuatu, Kiribati and São Tomé and Príncipe are high-ranking democracies. This article sets out to explore and analyse how the political systems of these three states function in their everyday practice, and to understand whether the correlation between smallness on the one hand, and democracy on the other, is borne out in political practice. Our study shows that many processes and procedures that we associate with that of a liberal democracy are indeed present in the cases. However, we also show that a number of procedures and occurrences that point to the contrary are likewise present. These include issues that pertain to the lack of actual separation of powers, lack of female political representation, friendship corruption, and nepotism. We propose further inquiry to increase our understanding as to whether these issues are related to the small population size of these countries.