Fiji and Trinidad are similar in terms of their colonial and postcolonial historical experiences, yet their political outcomes are different. The argument put forth is that constitutional reforms that were adopted by Fiji were unsuccessful because of systemic conditions specific to the country. Sustained by structural features such as land rights and chiefly jurisdiction, and more intangible factors such as cultural identity and nationalism, ethnic identity is the lens through which most public discourse occurs. By contrast, Trinidad does not have these corresponding institutional structures, and the existence of public spaces for the contestation of ethnic identities together with the construction of hybrid identities at the local and national levels have contributed towards political stability.