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In reply to the discussion: Shock new poll says Scots set to vote yes to independence [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)That is also currently considered the acceptable margin of victory for a referendum of Quebec voters on sovereignty.
The problem with "super-majorities" such as 60%)is that they end up giving a privileged minority a veto over change backed by a clear majority. In cases where such change doesn't involve repressing anybody or depriving anyone of their basic rights, this becomes deeply anti-democratic. And it creates real questions as to the legitimacy of the outcome.
How could there be any democratic validity, for example, to a result in which Scotland or Quebec stayed part of their respective political entities(the UK and Canada, in these cases)when a clear majority had said they wished to be independent of them? And how would this play out(as could happen in both situations)in which a UK or Canadian election were held and the party winning a majority of seats in Parliament won that majority on the votes of the areas which, before that, had given majority support to referenda declairing that they wished no longer to be part of the entities in which voters then cast ballots in general elections involving the entire entity?