ABSTRACT
Is secession democratic? Would an adequate theory of democracy include a right for groups of people to choose to secede from their state, taking a portion of its territory with them? The moral evaluation of secession is now a small boom industry in political philosophy, and many theorists are convinced that the answer to these questions is obviously Yes. Secession, they argue, is the ultimate act of selfdetermination, and self-determination in turn is the core idea of democracy. If democratic citizens can be entrusted to decide how they should be governed, who should govern them, and what the government should do, why then should they not also be allowed to decide the frontiers of the state in which their self-government should take place?l
Other theorists are quick to point out numerous points of tension between the ideas of democracy and secession.2 The possibility of secession could actually undermine democracy, they warn. The integrity of majority rule is subverted when a group threatens not to abide by democratic decisions, but rather to secede, if it happens to find itself in the minority (Buchanan 1991, pp. 98-99; 1998, p. 21). In a similar way, they argue, the spectre of secession undermines the deliberative aspect of democracy. Democracy is not just a matter of weighing preferences fairly; it is also a forum of deliberation, where participants develop and modify their views after discussion. If exit is too easy an option, however, this kind of deliberation will not take place (Buchanan 1991, p. 134; 1998, p. 22). Third, these theorists sometimes highlight a paradox in the idea that it is natural for democratic deliberations to be extended from matters of government and policy to matters of choosing a polity. In effect, democracy is rule by the people; but this assumes we already know who the people are, who the 'self' is that is self-determining. Yet this is exactly what secession calls into question.
A vote on secession is, in large part, a vote to decide who will be the people forming the self-governing polity. But can this matter be decided by a vote? Who would get to vote? We would already need an answer to the question 'who are the people?' in order to know who could vote; and yet this is what the vote is to decide.3
