A Liberal Theory of Secession

Separatism is a major contemporary socio-political problem and a basic but neglected problem of political philosophy. An attempt is made here to rescue the topic of secession from philosophical neglect and to demonstrate its theoretical importance by developing a liberal normative theory of secession. The claim is made that liberalism requires that secession be permitted if it is effectively desired by a territorially concentrated group and is morally and practically possible. This, it is argued, is required by the value liberalism places on freedom, by a liberal theory of popular sovereignty and by a presupposition of legitimate majority rule. The argument is put that the permissive principle of secession asserted is neither theoretically nor practically unacceptable and some of the conditions which may make secession impossible are specified.