Administering lilliput : the higher civil services of Malta, Barbados and Fiji

Abstract

This study examines the question whether a micro-state's size is of any consequence for government. It argues that conventional wisdom on the matter, resting on unsatisfactory measures of territorial, economic or demographic scale, is unable to establish a link of cause and effect, or to explain apparent anomalies. The study draws three propositions from a metaphor based on the fictitious Lilliput. Firstly, a micro-state's size mediates its relations with the outside world over historical time-scales, with lasting effects on social life, economic organisation and political institutions. Secondly, it produces a distinctive setting for government that is characterised by a random succession of contingencies and windfalls. The setting modifies the functions of government and the transaction of government business. Thirdly, size colours the expectations and perceptions of politicians and citizens, influences the distribution of power and lends passionate intensity to the competition between personalities or factions and ideas or institutions. The propositions are investigated through the higher civil services of three self-evidently small states, Malta, Barbados and Fiji, which are at the centre of events and developments affecting their respective societies. The review surveys the machinery of government, the transaction of government business, the minutiae of administration, administrative performance, the administrative ethic, as well as the concerns of leaders of the administrative profession. It draws upon a wide range of documentary evidence, and reviews critical events occurring during the past half century. It concludes that size is only one factor influencing government. Though its influence is discernible and pervasive, there is no simple relation of cause and effect between a micro-state's size and government. The micro-state is best described in terms of a distinctive pattern of tensions and ambiguities, opportunities and constraints.