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How Do Peaceful Secessions Happen?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2009

Robert A. Young
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario

Abstract

This study is a comparative survey of the political processes through which peaceful secession has taken place. The main focus is upon Singapore-Malaysia, Austria-Hungary and Norway-Sweden, though some attention is paid to other cases, including Czechoslovakia. The object is to derive, inductively, a set of empirical generalizations about the politics of the transition from a union or federation to two or more sovereign states. The article presents 13 such generalizations. Each is discussed and shown to hold in the various cases. Together, they comprise the pattern of politics that characterizes instances of peaceful secession

Résumé

Cette étude offre un survol des processus politiques qui accompagnent la séparation sans violence entre des États. On se penche notamment sur les rapports entre Singapour et la Malaisie, l'Autriche et la Hongrie, la Norvège et la Suède, sans ignorer d'autres situations semblables, et en particulier celle de la Tchécoslovaquie. Par la logique inductive, on veut arriver à des généralisations empiriques qui saisissent la dynamique politique d'une transition paisible d'une union ou d'une fédération à l'existence de deux ou de plusieurs États souverains. L'article présente et analyse 13 généralisations semblables, tout en illustrant leur manifestation dans les diverses situations. Prises ensemble, les généralisations décrivent adéquatement le processus politique d'une sécession non-violente.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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