ABSTRACT
Democracy is of course a much contested concept and definitions abound–indeed, to quote an opposite observation, 'there are almost as many theoretical definitions of democracy as there are scholars who study democratic politics'. Small states show a democracy profile almost identical to that of the larger European states and clearly superior to the profiles of the other groups of larger states. The chapter compares the 40 small states and the 80 larger states that have been investigated above and uses two dichotomized dimensions, namely modernization and democracy. Cape Verde is classified in a 'low' category as regards income and in a 'medium' category as regards employment, life expectancy and literacy, and is therefore, its epithet 'The Happy Islands' notwithstanding, an evident case of non-modernization. There are 27 non-modernized small states; of these states an evident majority of no less than 19 are in the democracy camp.
