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The 2021 Sāmoa general election produced a constitutional crisis, attracting international attention to issues regarding the quality of its democracy. In her 2006 book,  Tradition versus Democracy , Lawson provides an extensive examination of these and similar issues and argues that elites, identified as  matai , manipulate traditional institutions so as to perpetuate representational practices that deprive ordinary Sāmoans of their ‘democratic’ rights. This paper critically analyses Lawson’s argument and concludes that it is empirically unsustainable insofar as it identifies the  matai  as an elite class. Nevertheless, Lawson legitimately draws attention to the issue of whether an elite exists in Sāmoan politics and, if so, how they maintain power. The 2021 election crisis provides important insights into this issue, drawing attention to what is perhaps a better focus in analysing the existence of an elite, as well as the broader issue of whether Sāmoa’s political system is ‘democratic’.

Are Sāmoa’s Political Institutions Democratic? A Critical Examination of the Fa‘amatai and the 2021 General Election