Direct Democracy in Microstates and Small Island States

Abstract

This study is an empirical examination of the use of direct democracy in microstates and small island states. The study covers all democratic microstates and small island states in the world in 1999. Democratic status is derived from Freedom House data, and the question of whether small states form a distinct subpopulation in terms of direct democracy is approached through systematic comparisons with a population consisting of all 85 democracies in 1999. The findings are that whereas microstates make limited use of the popular initiative and the policy vote, they frequently apply the constitutional referendum. Whereas colonial background rather than size explains much of this pattern, the inclination of small states for the constitutional referendum stands substantiated.