Like their larger counterparts, even the smallest states in the world have delegated powers and competences to subnational units. The present article aims to examine why these microstates, which are ...themselves smaller than the average municipalities of larger states, apparently recognized a need for political decentralization, and why their decentralized jurisdictions have remained in place. Building on the literature on the origins and persistence of federalism, the analysis reveals that the choice for decentralization in European microstates was made largely according to patterns suggested by the general literature, whereas insular identities and colonial legacies provide the strongest explanations for the origins of federalism in the African, Caribbean, and Pacific cases. On the basis of two case studies of St. Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean and Palau in Oceania, it is found that the persistence of federalism can be explained by means of both historical-institutional and rationalist arguments.
The estimated coefficient of distance on the volume of trade is generally found to increase rather than decrease through time using the traditional gravity model of trade. This distance puzzle proved ...robust to several ad hoc versions of the model using data for 1962-96 for a large sample of 130 countries. The introduction of an "augmented" barrier to trade function removes the paradox, yielding a decline in the estimate of the elasticity of trade to distance of about 11 percent over the 35-year period for the whole sample. However, the "death of distance" is shown to be largely confined to bilateral trade between rich countries, with poor countries becoming marginalized.
Small States in Europe Steinmetz, Robert; Wivel, Anders
2010, 20160401, 2010-03-01, 2016-04-01, 2016-03-31, 20100101
eBook
The effects of recent institutional change within the European Union on small states have often been overlooked. This book offers an accessible, coherent and informative analysis of contemporary and ...future foreign policy challenges facing small states in Europe. Leading experts analyze the experiences of a number of small states including the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Iceland, Austria and Switzerland. Each account, written to a common template, explores the challenges and opportunities faced by each state as a consequence of EU integration, and how their behaviour regarding EU integration has been characterized. In particular, the contributors emphasize the importance of power politics, institutional dynamics and lessons of the past. Innovative and sophisticated, the study draws on the relational understanding of small states to emphasize the implications of institutional change at the European level for the smaller states and to explain how the foreign and European policies of small states in the region are affected by the European Union.
Within cinema studies there has emerged a significant body of scholarship on the idea of ‘National Cinema’ but there has been a tendency to focus on the major national cinemas. Less developed within ...this field is the analysis of what we might term minor or small national cinemas, despite the increasing significance of these small entities with the international domain of moving image production, distribution and consumption. The Cinema of Small Nations is the first major analysis of small national cinemas, comprising twelve case studies of small national - and sub national - cinemas from around the world, including Ireland, Denmark, Iceland, Scotland, Bulgaria, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Cuba, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Written by an array of distinguished and emerging scholars, each of the case studies provides a detailed analysis of the particular cinema in question, with an emphasis on the last decade, considering both institutional and textual issues relevant to the national dimension of each cinema. While each chapter contains an in-depth analysis of the particular cinema in question, the book as a whole provides the basis for a broader and more properly comparative understanding of small or minor national cinemas, particularly with regard to structural constraints and possibilities, the impact of globalization and internationalisation, and the role played by economic and cultural factors in small-nation contexts. Key features:
* the first major study of a range of small national cinemas
* detailed and informative studies of particular small national cinemas from around the globe
* an implicit comparative element that reveals major similarities and differences across the case studies
* a strong line up of international contributors including a number of major internationally recognised experts in the field
* written in an accessible style to appeal to students, academics and the general reader alike.
Background: To advance human biomonitoring
(HBM) for policy support in Europe, a harmonized
approach was developed (COPHES project, FP7 2009-
2012) and evaluated in 17 countries (DEMOCOPHES
project, ...Life+, 2010-2012). Cyprus (CY) and Luxembourg
(LU) tested the hypothesis that the COPHES
European Protocol is applicable to small countries.Materials and methods: In 2011-12, the European Protocol
was adopted and tested by CY and LU for the harmonized
biomonitoring of 60 children and their mothers for
cadmium, phthalates and cotinine in urine and for
mercury in scalp hair in two sampling areas (urban, rural).
Results: Both small countries achieved the preset goals
for recruitment, sample collection and analysis, which
allowed for the first time the assessment of children’s
and mothers’ exposures to the selected chemicals in
comparison with other countries. Capacity building
was accomplished and communication actions were
particularly effective, with both countries taking advantage
of their small size to access participants, policy makers,
other stakeholders and the press. Time constrains and
requirements for capacity building were limiting factors.
Conclusion: The COPHES European Protocol for HBM
surveys is attainable in small countries. The following
elements are fundamental in the design of a harmonized
European HBM program, from the perspective of small
countries: (a) consultation with and active involvement
of the implementing countries, (b) flexibility for national
decisions, while not compromising harmonization, (c)
elaboration of standardized methods, procedures and
documents (d) quality assurance mechanisms, (e) means
of training and support.
This article analyses the difficulties of visionary foreign policy thinking, by presenting a unique experiment that we conducted in the small state context of Finland in 2013‒2014. We invited eminent ...International Relations scholars to write lengthy newspaper columns contemplating the country’s future foreign policy avenues. The starting point for these contributions was a counterfactual present wherein Finland could afford to expend a substantial amount of additional resources on its external affairs, without the traditional sense of cautiousness symptomatic of the country. The insights attained throughout the experiment warrant reflection upon the utility of such heuristic devices as tools for future-oriented policy making. The exercise highlights a number of issues pertaining to the relationship between the disciplinary contours of IR and the concrete challenges of the policy world. Above all, the article calls for a nuanced use of the structure-agency continuum for coming to terms with the everyday complexities of foreign policy making.
By analysing the experience of Finland, Risto Alapuro shows how upheavals in powerful countries shape the internal politics of smaller countries. This linkage, a highly topical subject in the ...twenty-first century world, is concretely studied by putting the abortive Finnish revolution of 1917-18 into a long historical and a broad comparative perspective.
The multipolar world of present day, with one dominant state and a couple of contender states, is comprised of small, mid-size and large states. Small states comprise between half and two-thirds of ...the world's states depending on the criteria used for classification. However, their influence is diametrically opposite to their number. The contemporary transnational developments have changed the role and position of small states, giving them new opportunities for international action, albeit concurrently making them more vulnerable to external economic and environmental influences, such as overexposure to one economic activity and the consequences of the climate change. Small states, despite their relatively small importance for the transnational developments, deserve the attention of scholars and the general public, as well as the civil society. Large states could learn from successful small states and be more concerned for the fate of small states. The difficulties of small vulnerable states are predictors of the world's vulnerability.
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