If At First You Don’t Secede, Try, Try Again

18 November 2006 at 2:03 pm Peter G. Klein 2 comments

| Peter Klein |

We referred earlier to some interesting work on the natural boundaries of states. Today I learn that a majority of my Scottish kinsmen want to secede from the United Kingdom. The Scottish National Party (sorry, in Gaelic: Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba) is gaining ground on Labour and threatens, if it takes power, to hold a referendum on Scottish independence.

As Mises wrote in his great 1927 book Liberalism:

The right of self-determination in regard to the question of membership in a state thus means: whenever the inhabitants of a particular territory, whether it be a single village, a whole district, or a series of adjacent districts, make it known, by a freely conducted plebiscite, that they no longer wish to remain united to the state to which they belong at the time, but wish either to form an independent state or to attach themselves to some other state, their wishes are to be respected and complied with. This is the only feasible and effective way of preventing revolutions and civil and international wars.

Entry filed under: - Klein -, Classical Liberalism, Institutions.

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2 Comments Add your own

1. Margaret Klein | 18 November 2006 at 11:06 pm

The Scots won’t secede. They’ve historically resented the snooty, condescending English and still feel marginalized, but complete independence would be too drastic a step. (H’mm, maybe if Mel Gibson were to reprise his star turn as William Wallace in “Braveheart,” there’d be a lot more than 51 percent favoring the idea.)
2. Bo Nielsen | 21 November 2006 at 2:48 pm

Yes…we have a somewhat similar debate once in a while in Denmark, where Greenland sometimes feel like they should be completely independent. I remember a few years ago, Greenland argued this in respect to the Olympics, because they felt that too few Greenland inhabitants could qualify under the Danish standards. When Denmark suggested that they were welcome to “go it alone”, provided that they also fund their own sports themselves, the idea was dropped – it all comes down to money and rationalism in the end!