Freedom House holds that small archipelago states such as Vanuatu, Kiribatiand São Tomé and Príncipe are high-ranking democracies. This article sets out to explore andanalyse how the political systems of these three states function in their everyday practice, andto understand whether the correlation between smallness on the one hand, and democracy onthe other, is borne out in political practice. Our study shows that many processes andprocedures that we associate with that of a liberal democracy are indeed present in the cases.However, we also show that a number of procedures and occurrences that point to the contraryare likewise present. These include issues that pertain to the lack of actual separation of powers,lack of female political representation, friendship corruption, and nepotism. We propose furtherinquiry to increase our understanding as to whether these issues are related to the smallpopulation size of these countries.