Secession

Dynamics

The dynamics of secession rest on four preconditions: nation, territory, leaders, and discontent. Secession demands must be presented by an identifiable community that is smaller than the state and that threatens to withdraw if not satisfied. Questions of identity underpin this community of people, or nation, who perceive the characteristics that distinguish their members from other groups, who feel a commitment to each other, and who then undertake the challenge of changing their circumstances. This community must be associated with the territory on which it would establish its newly independent state. Without effective leadership to translate community needs into demands, threats to the nation might merely degenerate into social unrest as pent-up frustrations are vented. Discontent with the current circumstances motivates the community's demands for change. Often a nation is bound together, and perhaps even defined, by common claims of discrimination, neglect, exploitation, or repression in economic, political, cultural, linguistic, or religious terms. The U.S. Declaration of Independence points to the “unbearable tyranny of the state” as both the reason, in the sense of providing the motivating force, and the moral justification for secession.

Embedded in any secession lies the perceived justice of the community's cause. The debate surrounding the “right of secession” and its close relative, “the right of national self- determination,” revolves around (a) the argument that secession may be justifiable either in circumstances where state rule over a nation is particularly oppressive and tyrannical or when a majority of a territorially concentrated community desires secession and (b) the argument that secession may be desirable due to the benefits it provides for nations to organize themselves according to their own values.

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