Nobody agrees what makes a country a microstate, but tiny nations thrive anyway
Vatican City covers just 49 hectares and has fewer than a thousand residents, making it the smallest recognised sovereign state. Yet there is no agreed definition of a microstate. Scholars disagree about whether to count people, land, power, or something subtler, such as how much sovereignty a country hands to a bigger neighbour.
The obvious candidates are Europe's five historic minnows: Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City. Pacific island nations such as Nauru, Palau and Tuvalu usually join them. Beyond that the list gets arguable. Malta and Luxembourg are often judged too populous, Singapore and Bahrain too self-sufficient and powerful, while Iceland and Guyana have plenty of land but few people. Even the Vatican's status has been questioned; a legal scholar argued in 1972 that it might not meet the classic tests of statehood on two counts.
Numerical cut-offs are criticised as arbitrary, and definitions based on international clout risk confusing small states with weak or failing ones. One proposal from 2014 calls microstates modern protected states: sovereign countries that have voluntarily passed some functions, such as defence, to larger powers in exchange for protection against the limits of their size.
Size seems to go with democracy. In 2012 Freedom House rated 86 percent of countries with under half a million inhabitants as free, and some researchers point to social cohesion and direct contact between citizens and leaders. Others warn that close-knit politics can breed clientelism and favouritism when everyone is related to someone. Colonial history plays a part too; former British colonies often run Westminster-style parliaments. In foreign affairs, microstates trade what they have, from tax-haven status to votes on international committees, in return for economic and military backing.
History also left some oddities. The Cospaia Republic in Italy gained independence through a treaty mistake, lasted from 1440 to 1826, and helped bring tobacco growing to Italy. Couto Misto, claimed by both Spain and Portugal, governed itself until being carved up in 1864. The Republic of Indian Stream, now a New Hampshire town, ignored both the United States and Canada from 1832 to 1835.
Source: Microstate
