Exploring sub-national island jurisdictions: An editorial introduction

Godfrey Baldacchino, David Milne
2006 The Round Table  
Sub-national island jurisdictions (SNIJs) manifest diverse expressions of governance within typically asymmetrical relationships with a much larger state. Dubbed 'federacies' in the literature on federalism, these bilateral systems of self-and shared-rule arise almost exclusively on islands. The jurisdictional powers that island federacies enjoy are principally a result of bilateral negotiations between island political elites and a (usually benign) metropole. This bargain is struck against the
more » ... backdrop of a particular colonial inheritance, a local 'subnationalist' culture, and the varying ambitions of local elites to win jurisdictional powers to advance 'sub-national' territorial interests. At other times, however, island autonomies arise as crafted, deliberate devolutions of central governments eager to exploit islands as 'managed' zones for economic or security-related activity in a globalised economy. In either case sub-national autonomies often show more success and resilience as non-sovereign island jurisdictions than their sovereign island-state counterparts.
doi:10.1080/00358530600929735 fatcat:jbx7uzrmcfgvjaleks4p55sxvu