Liechtenstein: a tale of unusual sovereignty

In this essay, Michael Wohlgemuth highlights important elements of political sovereignty in Liechtenstein. The principality is unusual in terms of both internal and external pooling and sharing of sovereignty. Internally, ultimate sovereignty is both monarchical and direct-democratic. Also externally, the country has found an almost unique niche of sharing sovereignty via the European Economic Area (EEA) and strong economic ties with Switzerland. For all its uniqueness and “nicheness”, Liechtenstein may also offer some universalizable messages. The essay stresses the links with (institutional) trust. The principality can be shown to be an extraordinary “high-trust society”. Hence, Liechtenstein can be argued to show that natural intimateness of a small state leads to interpersonal trust in a constitutional division of powers that fosters the self-confidence of the sovereign (the people) and supports institutional trust in a world of shared sovereignty. Free download of the paper here.