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A microstate or ministate is a sovereign state having a very small population or very small land area, and usually both. As the meaning of neither "state" nor "very small" is clear,〔Warrington, E., 1994. Lilliputs Revisited. Asian Journal of Public Administration, 16(1).〕 the recent attempts to define microstates focus on identifying political entities with unique qualitative features linked to their geographic or demographic limitations. According to a qualitative definition, microstates are: "modern protected states, i.e. sovereign states that have been able to unilaterally depute certain attributes of sovereignty to larger powers in exchange for benign protection of their political and economic viability against their geographic or demographic constraints." In line with this and most other definitions the examples of microstates include: Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, Niue, Andorra and the Federated States of Micronesia. The smallest political unit recognized as a sovereign state is Vatican City, with 842 citizens as of July 2013 and an area of only 0.44 km². However, some scholars dispute qualifying Vatican as a state arguing that it does not meet the "traditional criteria of statehood" and that the "special status of the Vatican City is probably best regarded as a means of ensuring that the Pope can freely exercise his spiritual functions, and in this respect is loosely analogous to that of the headquarters of international organisations."〔Mendelson, M., 1972. Diminutive States in the United Nations. The International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 21(4), pp.609–630.〕 Microstates are distinct from micronations, which are not recognized as sovereign states. Special territories without full sovereignty, such as the British Crown Dependencies, the Chinese Special Administrative Regions and overseas territories of Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom, are also not considered microstates. == Quantitative definitions of microstates and their limitations == Most scholars identify microstates by using a quantitative threshold and applying it to either one variable (such as territory〔Mehmet, O. & Tahiroglu, M., 2002. Growth and equity in microstates: Does size matter in development? International Journal of Social Economics, 29(1/2), pp.152–162.〕 or population〔Boyce, P.J. & Herr, R.A., 2008. Microstate diplomacy in the south pacific. Australian Outlook, (April 2012), pp.37–41.〕 size) or a composite of different variables.〔Reid, G.L., 1975. Impact of Very Small Size on the International Behaviour of Microstates (International Studies), SAGE Publications Ltd.〕 While it is agreed that microstates are the smallest of all states, there is no consensus on what variable (or variables) or what cut-off point should be used to determine which political units should be labelled as "microstates" (as opposed to small states or "normal" states).〔〔〔Neemia, U., 1995. Smallness, islandness and foreign policy behaviour: aspects of island microstates foreign policy behaviour with special reference to Cook Islands and Kiribati. University of Wollongong.〕〔Dommen, E., 1985. States, Microstates and Islands, Routledge Kegan & Paul.〕 : : While employing simple quantitative criteria may seem straightforward, it can also be perceived as potentially problematic. According to some scholars the quantitative approach to defining microstates suffers from such problems as "inconsistency, arbitrariness, vagueness and inability to meaningfully isolate qualitatively distinct political units"〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Microstate」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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