Secession and liberal democracy. The case of the Basque country

Requejo, Ferran, 1951-; Sanjaume Calvet, Marc

Secession and liberal democracy. The case of the Basque country

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Requejo, F, Sanjaume Calvet, M. Secession and liberal democracy. The case of the Basque country. 2009. handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2072/43036

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Abstract

The academic debate about the secession of a territory which is part of a liberal democracy state displays an initial contrast. On the one hand, practical secessionist movements usually legitimize their position using nationalist arguments linked to the principle of national self- determination. On the other hand, we find in academia few defenders of a normative principle of national self-determination. Philosophers, political scientists and jurists usually defend the status quo. And even when they do not defend it, most of them tend to leave the question of that question and secession unresolved or confused. Regarding this issue, liberal-democratic theories show a tendency to be “conservative” in relation to the political borders, regardless the historical and empirical processes of creation of current States. Probably, this feature is not far away to the fact that, since its beginning, political liberalism has not been a theory of the nation, but a theory of the state.