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malthaussen

(18,507 posts)

30. Well, "National Sovereignty" is impossible without a State...

Thu May 5, 2016, 11:41 AM

May 2016

... therefore the first part of your reply reduces to "Only through the State do the People maintain the State," which is of course a tautology.

As to self-determination, setting aside the more obvious questions, I'm curious as to what slice of people constitutes a reasonable number for a group to be entitled to self-determination. There are what, 170-odd nation states now, which is considerably up from the number when I was a lad. Populations and territories vary greatly. For example, the nation-state of Andorra contains fewer people than the county in which I live. Yet the nation-state of Andorra may (subject to evident pressures from neighbors) determine many questions on which my county is not privileged to rule. If nations preserve my self-determination (stipulating that there is such a thing), then how is it a State of over 300 million can be in any way construed to maintain such to the same extent that one of 80,000 can?

-- Mal

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