The political economy of small tropical islands. Edited by Helen M. Hintiens and Malyn D. D. Newitt. University of Exeter Press, 1992, 247 pp.
| Date | 01 May 1993 |
| Author | Kenneth Bain |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230130216 |
| Published date | 01 May 1993 |
Book
Reviews
181
relevant in the debate regarding the Convention
on
the Rights of the Child, and as all countries
face their obligations under the Convention, and the implications of its monitoring require-
ments.
R.
PADMINI
UNICEF, New York
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN SMALL AND ISLAND STATES
Edited
by
Randall Baker
Kumarian Press, West Hartford, 1992,310 pp.
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SMALL TROPICAL ISLANDS
Edited
by
Helen
M.
Hintiens and Malyn
D.
D. Newitt
University of Exeter Press, 1992,247 pp.
The special problems of small states are not new. Serious attention to them may be. One
reason is clear: as the twenty-first century beckons, micro-state survival could be increasingly
problematic in
a
recessionary world of awesome technological and environmental change
and hazard.
In 1985, the Commonwealth Secretariat produced the report of a consultative group
Vulnera-
bility
of
Small States in the Global Society.
It did not make for ‘beautiful’ reading. Now,
in 1992, two new books have appeared. They are, in some degree at least, complementary.
Public Administration
in
Small and Island States
has the wider geographical range. The opening
chapter by the editor, Randall Baker, admirably sets the scene
:
Scale and Administrative
Performance (in) The Governance of Small States and Microstates. One
of
the most illuminat-
ing contributions is by Geoffrey Coyne. He deals with the impact of culture on small-state
administration and the management of public policy in the Solomon Islands. There is the
clear ring of truth about it all.
Some of the 20 disparate contributors are, however, given to sweeping unsupported generali-
zations
(‘.
.
.
the pseudo-colonial regimes of the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla especially
were long neglected by Britain and governed by third-rate Colonial officials.
.
.’)
and stultifying
obfuscation
:
‘In keeping with the bottom-up, consensus-seeking style that has, at least by
implication, been advocated, the governments
of
small states
in
various regions might well
explore ways and means to accelerate governmental integration
.
.
.’
Well, well.
And from yet another writer, picked at random: ‘Jones confuses the tendency towards
particularism and personalism in small-scale societies with a tendency towards elitism in
government’. Small states are indeed vulnerable: in these instances to the verbal vagaries
of second-rate academics.
Compare this sort of thing with Mike Faber’s introduction in the second book to his ‘The
case of the Maldives’: ‘This is an adventure story’ he says, ‘with a beginning, a middle and
a happy ending; and
I
shall try to tell it that way’. He does
so
and the intellectual level
and lucidity of his piece are compelling. David Lowenthal’s general overview is eclectic, anecdo-
tal and vivid. Indeed the general quality of the writing and material in
The Political Economy
of
Small Tropical Islands
seems to be evidence of the care with which the editors have selected
their contributors. (Only one writer appears in both books).
Yet they are, of course, only concerned with islands, not landlocked small states like Swazi-
land and Lesotho which hardly get a mention in the first book either. There are some useful
maps, but the small print is irritating.
The two publications constitute timely source material for the specialist and the general
reader-perhaps also for the jaundiced politicians and public servants of small states. The
ragbag of problems they face will no doubt continue to range from imported inflation and
AIDS to the relentless realities of the brain drain; while the sustained inflow of analysis
and advice may at times even be in imbalance with the outflow of native human resources.
The key to the differences in the two books may lie in their respective subject titles. Public
Administration as a topic is unlikely to cause the blood to race in either writer or reader.
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