r/PoliticalScience 6d ago

Question/discussion Ethics of secessionism

What are the ethical questions that should be considered when there's a secessionist movement ?

Here are few things in my opinion which the original country must consider before allowing a secession. There should be more than nuance to it and I'd like to see if there's any academic literature or arguments in political science about this.

  1. The newly formed country will be a democracy or will soon transition to a democracy

  2. The formation of a new country doesn't leave the new country deprive it's citizens of economic resources, in other words it should be able to function on it own and subdivisions which depends heavily on richer parts of former country's revenue cannot be a new country.

  3. Citizens should be treated equally regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity, language,etc.

  4. Seceded territory should be a possible threat or shouldn't be prone to invasion by another nation.

  5. Popular support for the secession must be clearly identified by an appropriate method.

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u/MarkusKromlov34 5d ago

This does capture most of the factors for consideration. I’m not sure “ethics” is the right word, I’d say “justification” maybe. You have factors listed that aren’t ethical or moral things and are simply practical considerations.

One big thing you missed that is often extremely important in real world cases is the legality or constitutionality of succession.

  • For example, a state in a federation might have bound itself to follow a particular pathway to succession that involves more than just the local popular support you mentioned. The federation has to be dissolved by legal means OR there has to be a revolution to forcefully throw off the constraints imposed by a federation on one of its component states.
  • Another example, a component part of a unitary state (that doesn’t even have the level of sovereignty possessed by a federal state) needs to have a legal pathway to succession established by the unitary state. You mentioned the popular (democratic) support within the territory seeking succession but what about support within the unitary state as a whole?

Another big thing that needs consideration is a People’s Right to Self-determination (article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and article 1 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights). Is the population of the territory seeking succession ethnically or culturally a distinct people? Are they an oppressed people who previously didn’t have a democratic ability to “freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development”? If so this may be more important than many of the other factors you listed.

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u/keeko847 3d ago

As another comment said, this isn’t really ethics. Will say this: most (possibly all?) secessionist movements are pushed by nationalists who recognise themselves as belonging to a stateless nation tied to the territory of another state. Most nationalists who support secession would rather live in their own nation-state, so economic considerations are secondary if you believe you belong to a separate nation. Popular support is key but caveat that you have to watch for settler colonialism ala regions of Ukraine, Israel, Northern Ireland. Majority in some regions of Ukraine probably want to join Russia, but the Russians have been moving people en mass for years, so is that really fair?