Secession

From dKosopedia

All democratically constituted nations recognize a right to secession to form a smaller country if fundamental rights are not recognized by the larger body. For example, the USA was formed by secession from the British Empire.

An active attempt to secede is usually called a sovereignty movement. Note that words like separate, secede, and sovereign are synonyms, and the use of one word or another tends to be a response to the situation, not a plan to cease seeking autonomy once a given level of local power is achieved. Almost all movements seeking more local power would prefer to be states fully independent with a seat at the United Nations.

Attitudes to secession tend to vary widely by national history and experience. In the United States, India, and China, secession movements are viewed very negatively and as directly threatening to the state, due in part to historical experience of conflict and standoff with the Confederacy, Pakistan and Taiwan. There is widespread concern in Turkey also that Kurdistan separating from Iraq would lead to calls by Turkish Kurds to join them in a new state that would alter the borders of Turkey. In South Korea also the history of secession has been sad with North Korea holding many people as effective hostages who would rather be part of a unified stated called Korea.

However, many countries have totally different attitudes since they had entirely positive experiences with secession, notably Norway and Sweden, Czech Republic and Slovakia, and to a lesser degree even Great Britain and Ireland, whose tensions with each other have been at least reduced to the status of Northern Ireland. In Canada also the issue of Quebec sovereignty has been subjected to a vote twice and will certainly be again - see Quebec sovereignty referendum - before 2010.

The breakup of the USSR provides a recent example of relatively peaceful secession in which 15 countries were created out of one in a short time. A similar fate is sometimes predicted for the USA in part because of its parallel superpower status. In the USSR the process began with the smaller and formerly independent "captive" republics Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania departing. Likewise in the US it would likely start with Hawaii sovereignty, Alaska sovereignty, Puerto Rico sovereignty.

See secession.net for a detailed theoretical analysis of issues and ethics of secession.

See Quebec sovereignty referendum, Newfoundland sovereignty, Hawaii sovereignty, Alaska sovereignty, Puerto Rico sovereignty for issues closer to home. Also the de facto sovereignty that exists in Chiapas in Mexico, a state which essentially no longer reports to Mexico City government.