Politico-administrative relationships in small states

Abstract

This paper analyses the nature, intensiveness and closeness of the relationship between the politicians and career civil servants with respect to the execution of their respective functions. The paper pays particular attention to different perceptions of the "State" and "Government" in comparative perspective. and tries to establish a link between those different perceptions and the nature of the civil service system in small jurisdictions. The paper also analyses the applicability of Leemans "methodology" of local government to small states,. The paper argues that this methodology can sometimes help in understanding the problems of small communities, but cannot be directly applied to small states. Finally, the paper looks at the different existing models or politico administrative relation,, and assesses whether they can be applied to small states.