There’s something special about living on an island. Just ask anybody who lives in one of Maine’s 14 year-round island communities. Failing that, just ask a mainlander who knows anybody who lives on an island and who has given up trying to get a word in edgewise.

Turns out, the specialness of island life isn’t just commuting by boat, or planning ahead for groceries and heating oil, or even knowing pretty much what everyone is doing pretty much all the time. A growing body of research suggests that the underlying virtues of adapting, self-reliance and caring, plus other human traits enhanced by living on a small patch of land encircled by a great expanse of water, make small islands particularly effective incubators for democracy.

In a column in Monday’s Toronto Globe and Mail, scholar Henry Srebrnik, who teaches island studies at the University of Prince Edward Island, describes some of this research and makes a few observations on the lessons that might by learned by those of us who live surrounded by pavement. Mr. Srebrnik will be among the speakers this week at Islands VII, an annual conference held by UPEI’s Institute of Island Studies and the International Small Islands Studies Association.

First, it should be made clear that the small islands in question aren’t Vinalhaven small, but East Timor small – that is, the 33 sovereign island states in the world with populations of 1.5 million or less, of which East Timor, barely one month sovereign, is the newest. Most, whether in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean and South Pacific, are poor. Most, unlike small and poor continental states, have thriving democracies.

Many, such as Barbados, Kiribati, Malta, Mauritius, Micronesia and Trinidad, Mr. Srebrnik writes, “can hold their own with democratic states anywhere.”

A 2000 study by the U.S. Agency for International Development for noted that the conventional wisdom linking poverty and a lack of democratic structures does not apply to small island states: “(Islands) are found to be significantly associated with every measure of political democracy …The fact of being an island country has a consistent and positive impact on the likelihood of political democracy” and “may help explain why some lower-income, small island countries become democratic despite established associations between lower income and a lack of democratic structures (elsewhere).”

In 1992, development specialist Axel Hadenius measured the level of democracy in 132 Third World countries – for 29 small island states, the average “democracy score” was more than double that for all other countries. In 1999, Robert Faris of Harvard’s Center for International Development used data from 80 nations and found island states to be substantially more democratic than continental countries: of the 46 new continental states that became independent between 1950 and 1980, only six were democracies; of the 18 new island states during that period, the democratic total was 11. In other words, Mr. Faris concluded, “not only were the majority of islands democratic, but the majority of new democracies were islands.”

Even islands in turmoil can exhibit strong democratic tendencies. Cyprus has been partitioned between Greek and Turkish communities for nearly three decades, yet each is internally democratic. Fiji has suffered coups and military control since 1987, the hangover from two centuries of ethnic strife; successful elections were held last year under a new constitution that seems to be resolving an ancient dispute peacefully.

This “island effect” may be a combination of many factors: small trading networks, insulation from the international system of outside entanglements, government by responsive and approachable “non-professional” politicians, a keener awareness that one’s actions truly effect others. Now, if we could only re-create those same virtues without all that water.