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Schwimmende Politeia? Demokratische Mikroinseln im Südpazifik und in der Karibik

Swimming Politeia? Democratic microislands in the Caribbean Basin and in the Pacific

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Zusammenfassung

Der Beitrag geht der Frage nach, warum die 18 souveränen Mikroinselstaaten der Karibik und des Südpazifiks seit Mitte der 1980er Jahre stabile Demokratien, während die restlichen neun Mikroinselstaaten der „Dritten Welt“ autoritäre Regime oder Militärdiktaturen sind. Drei Variablen sollen zur Klärung dieser Frage getestet werden: Größe, Homogenität und Insularität. Das Ergebnis dieses Tests legt nahe, im Falle der demokratischen Mikroinseln die geopolitische Lagerung als einen wichtigen Erklärungsfaktor für die Frage nach der Demokratie auf diesen Inseln zu betrachten. In diesem Sinne will der Beitrag eine Brücke zwischen der Vergleichenden Regierungslehre und den Internationalen Beziehungen schlagen.

Abstract

Microislands are not a hot spot of comparative government studies. Without good reasons. Surely, from a political perspective Microislands are not of great importance. But such an argument should not prevent researchers from taking a closer look at Microislands. Because they are perfectly designed to broaden our knowledge of the circumstances under which democracies occur and survive. In this paper three assumptions, taken from the rare literature on Microislands, are tested: territorial space, homogeneity and insularity. It can be shown that the geographical as well as the geopolitical position of Caribbean and south pacific microislands posses a high explanatory power for the question why those states are stable democracies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Branch, NATODefense College, Via Giorgio Pelosi 1, 00143, Rome, Italy

    Carlo Masala PD Dr.

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  1. Carlo Masala PD Dr.
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Masala, C. Schwimmende Politeia? Demokratische Mikroinseln im Südpazifik und in der Karibik. PVS 45, 237–258 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11615-004-0033-8

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