Un microestado (o miniestado) es un estado soberano que tiene una población muy reducida, un territorio muy pequeño o ambos. Andorra, Mónaco, Baréin, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Nauru, Palaos, Tuvalu, San Cristóbal y Nieves y la Ciudad del Vaticano son ejemplos de microestados. Los microestados tienen una importante influencia relativa en la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas, debido a su estructura en la que cada estado tiene un voto. El estado de soberanía plena más pequeño del mundo es la Ciudad del Vaticano que, en julio de 2003, tenía 911 ciudadanos en un área de 0.44 km². La Ciudad del Vaticano no es miembro de las Naciones Unidas; sin embargo, la Santa Sede, que ejerce su soberanía sobre la Ciudad del Vaticano, tiene el estatus de Observador permanente en la Asamblea General. Los microestados no deben de ser confundidos con las micronaciones, que son territorios especiales, como por ejemplo las Islas Anglo-Normandas que por carecer de soberanía no pueden ser consideradas microestados.

Leer el artículo completo en Wikipedia · CC-BY-SA

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, 2010s 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 44 hectares (110 acres). 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." 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.

Leer el artículo completo en Wikipedia · CC-BY-SA