Book review: Corbett, Jack and Veenendaal, Wouter (2018). Democracy in small states: Persisting against all odds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Abstract

Jack Corbett and Wouter Veenendaal’s book has two general and interconnected questions at its core: 1) Why are small states more democratic than large ones? and 2) How does domestic politics actually work in small states? (p.4). Readers who are familiar with the theories of democracy might question whether there is still something new to be said about democracy, while readers who are unfamiliar with the idiosyncrasies of small state politics may begin with the question: why small states, and what can they teach us about democratization? However, Corbett and Veenendaal’s book offers plenty of good arguments for why small states matter and for how they can be perfect laboratories for examining the main theories of democratization