Editing Microstate (section)

=== Quantitative ===
Most scholars identify microstates by using a quantitative threshold and applying it to either one variable (such as the size of its territory<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Mehmet |first1=Ozay |last2=Tahiroglu |first2=M. |date=1 January 2002 |title=Growth and equity in microstates: Does size matter in development? |journal=International Journal of Social Economics |volume=29 |issue=1/2 |pages=152–162 |doi=10.1108/03068290210413047}}</ref> or population<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Boyce |first1=Peter J. |last2=Herr |first2=Richard A. |date=April 1974 |title=Microstate diplomacy in the south pacific |journal=Australian Outlook |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=24–35 |doi=10.1080/10357717408444489}}</ref>) or a composite of different variables.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Reid |first=George L. |title=The impact of very small size on the international behavior of microstates |date=1974 |publisher=Sage Publications |isbn=9780803904064 |location=Beverly Hills, Calif}}</ref> While it is agreed that microstates are the smallest of all states, there is no consensus on what variable (or variables) or cut-off point should be used to determine which political units should be labelled as "microstates" (as opposed to small "normal" states).<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite report |url=http://ams.hi.is/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Microstates_OccasionalPaper.pdf |title=Microstates as Modern Protected States: Towards a New Definition of Micro-Statehood |last=Dumienski |first=Zbigniew |date=2014 |publisher=Centre for Small State Studies |access-date=2014-06-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714195156/http://ams.hi.is/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Microstates_OccasionalPaper.pdf |archive-date=2014-07-14 |url-status=dead |series=Occasional Paper}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite thesis |last=Neemia |first=U. |title=Smallness, islandness and foreign policy behaviour: aspects of island microstates foreign policy behaviour with special reference to Cook Islands and Kiribati |date=1995 |publisher=University of Wollongong |url=https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2439&context=theses |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240219212327/https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2439&context=theses |archive-date=19 February 2024 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Dommen |first=E. |title=States, Microstates and Islands |date=1985 |publisher=Routledge Kegan & Paul |isbn=978-0-7099-0862-3 |editor-last=Hein |editor-first=P. |location=London; Dover, N.H}}</ref> 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".<ref name=":1" />