Wolf, Sebastian (2016): Governance in small state legislatures. A theoretical framework and the case of Liechtenstein (Preprint). Veröffentlicht in: Sebastian Wolf (Hg.) (2016): State Size Matters. Politik und Recht im Kontext von Kleinstaatlichkeit und Monarchie. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, S. 83–97.

Abstract

This chapter aims at combining approaches from small state literature with selected governance typologies in order to explore patterns of governance in the legislatures of small countries. Assumptions on the key independent variable (small stateness) are derived from small state theory whereas governance theory provides an analytical framework to explore the dependent variable. I expect to particularly observe strong hierarchy, (quasi-) consensual decision-making, and rather weak party competition in the law-making processes of small state parliaments. Seven more concrete working hypotheses are tested with regard to the parliament of Liechtenstein, and their explanatory power is exceptional. The principality’s law-making tends to be characterized by consensus-oriented hierarchical governance.