The Politics and Political Economy of European Tiny States

Abstract

This panel looks at the contemporary politics and political economy of small European states with a special focus on tiny states: defined as sovereign states with populations of less than five million (thus excluding cases like the Channel Islands). The focus on this category of states is warranted for several reasons. First, the disintegration of the Soviet and Yugoslav federations has led to the proliferation of many states even smaller than those analyzed by the classic work of Peter Katzenstein, e.g. the Baltic States, Montenegro or Slovenia. Tiny states also remain numerous in Western Europe, e.g. Luxemburg, Malta, or Iceland. As the political clout of these EU member states (or aspiring states) exceeds their size, a profound knowledge of their politics and political economy is indispensable. Second, tiny states typically occupy specialized world market niches that make them even more vulnerable to global pressures than most of the states analyzed by Katzenstein. The current crisis is a case in point, as it has challenged profoundly the development paths of tiny states, from Iceland to Latvia. Third, analyzing tiny states may require different conceptual and methodological tools than political economy approaches applied to a universe of cases populated by much bigger and more powerful states. Size does matter; the question is how it matters. The aim of the section is to explore the diversity of European tiny states, their political preferences as shaped by their specific vulnerabilities, their identities as shaped by their tininess, the economic roles they assume in the European division of labor, and the sustainability of their specific development paths in light of the current crisis.

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