Curious Cases: Small Island States' Exceptionalism and its Contribution to Comparative Welfare Theory

Abstract

While the size of states and the significance of ‘islandness’ have been of mild interest within the comparative study of politics and economics, the theoretical frameworks that operate within contemporary comparative analyses of welfare and social policy rest upon a largely unremarked assumption that population size does not matter. Explanations of and predictions for the development of welfare relations are undertaken in the belief that it is the ideological essence of welfare states that is important, and this national ‘character’ is established through concentration on the politics of class, sometimes gender, and occasionally ethnicity. However, it is often from the study of the small that important insight is generated and variation in universals can be found. Focusing on exemplars of the smallest national units, Cyprus, Iceland and Jersey, this article explores the significance of size and ‘islandness’ in welfare analysis. The findings of these country case studies expose aspects of the relationship between economics, geo-political strength and weakness, welfare state exceptionalism and hybridity and the social basis of welfare regime types which are less visible when size is not featured as an explanatory variable.