Self-determination vs. state sovereignty. What are the determinants of agreed-upon independence referendums in liberal democracies?

Secession referendums can help to resolve the tension between self-determination and state sovereignty. Nevertheless, not all state governments accept holding such consultations in collaboration with secessionist movements. This paper tackles this issue by focusing on the determinants of agreed and...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Sanjaume-Calvet, Marc, Harguindéguy, Jean-Baptiste, Sánchez Sánches, Almudena
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universidad Pablo de Olavide (UPO)
Repositorio:RIO. Repositorio Institucional Olavide
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:rio.upo.es:10433/23726
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10433/23726
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Soberanía
Referéndum
Independencia
Secesión
Descripción
Sumario:Secession referendums can help to resolve the tension between self-determination and state sovereignty. Nevertheless, not all state governments accept holding such consultations in collaboration with secessionist movements. This paper tackles this issue by focusing on the determinants of agreed and non-agreed upon independence referendums. Through a statistical analysis based on a dataset of independence referendums held in liberal democracies from 1945 to 2022 (N=70), we demonstrate that the decision of the parent state’s government to agree to an independence referendum depends on two factors. The first is the perception of competition and/or electoral proximity to the referendum demand. The second depends on the expectation of the low cost of an eventual secession—at least in terms of population, area and natural resources. Accordingly, we propose a general model designed to predict the disposition of a liberal democracy to agree to an independence referendum.