RT Journal Article
T1 Self-determination vs. state sovereignty. What are the determinants of agreed-upon independence referendums in liberal democracies?
A1 Sanjaume-Calvet, Marc
A1 Harguindéguy, Jean-Baptiste
A1 Sánchez Sánches, Almudena
K1 Soberanía
K1 Referéndum
K1 Independencia
K1 Secesión
AB Secession referendums can help to resolve the tension between self-determination and state sovereignty. Nevertheless, not all state governments accept holding such consultations in collaboration with secessionist movements. This paper tackles this issue by focusing on the determinants of agreed and non-agreed upon independence referendums. Through a statistical analysis based on a dataset of independence referendums held in liberal democracies from 1945 to 2022 (N=70), we demonstrate that the decision of the parent state’s government to agree to an independence referendum depends on two factors. The first is the perception of competition and/or electoral proximity to the referendum demand. The second depends on the expectation of the low cost of an eventual secession—at least in terms of population, area and natural resources. Accordingly, we propose a general model designed to predict the disposition of a liberal democracy to agree to an independence referendum.
PB Taylor and Francis
YR 2024
FD 2024-04-05
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10433/23726
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10433/23726
LA en
NO Democratization, 31(7), 1564–1588.
NO Área de Ciencia Política y de la Administración
NO Departamento de Derecho Público
DS RIO
RD May 24, 2026