This ariticle explores the role of the state in the Third World and the World-System through a case study of the microstates and the small island countries (SICs). The research is mainly limited to an analysis of European nation-state model. The result re-examination could conceivably in the case of very small and very remote islands, in the deliberate decision to reject such notions as integration and participation in the world system. There are historical precedents. Island communities in the Indian Ocean, parts of the Pacific, and some Southeast Asian island states have a tradition of defensive withdrawal in times of crisis. Small islands were among the first to be colonized by the European powers and among the last to achieve independence. Long term of colonialization of these small islands has affected subsistence agriculture in four main ways. It resulted in a decline in the range of crops grown, the number of varieties grown, the range of techiques employed, and in the intensity of cultivation systems. The combined effect of all this was the overall impoverishment of subsistence agriculture and not infrequently, the deterioration of local food systems. The author concludes that the traditional political systems and political roles in small states and small island countries occupy an important position, in the World System, and influence our notion of nation-state in the Third World.