Size, Insularity and Democracy

In a recent book on “Democracy and Development” (1992) Axel Hadenius stumbles over the observation that island states are of special interest: on a scale running from 0 to 10, the average level of democracy is 7.1 for island states while for others it is 3.6. This, according to Hadenius, is due to the fact that island states are far more Protestant dominated than others. Contesting this view, three points are argued in this article. First, the attempt to explain away the relationship between insularity and democracy by introducing Protestantism into the explanatory design is questioned on grounds of methodology, the leading argument being that comparative analyses should not treat differences in factors like Protestantism as matters of degree. A second argument is about concept‐stretching: the overall travel capacity of concepts like Protestantism is questioned for the universe of small island states, where custom and the accommodation of traditional authority must be credited with filtrating functions. Secondly, theoretical reasons and empirical illustrations are introduced to suggest that one is well advised to consider small island states as a separate category, imbued with democracy and democratic procedures. Thirdly, due notice is taken of the fact that several small island states, such as Cape Verde, the Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe, the Seychelles and Western Samoa, have undergone transitions to democracy during the time span after Hadenius's research (1988), the level of democracy for small island states therefore being now even higher.