Editing Self-determination (section)

=== Self-determination versus majority rule/equal rights ===
Self-determination can be at odds with the principle of [[majority rule]] and equal rights, especially when there is a sizable minority group. In democratic societies, majority rule is often used to determine the outcome in electoral and voting processes. However, a major critique of majority rule is that it may result in the [[tyranny of the majority]], especially in cases in which a simple majority is used in order to determine outcome. This flaw is particularly poignant when there is a large minority group whose interests are not being represented, and who may then seek to secede.

The right to self-determination by a minority has long been contested in democracies with majority rule. For instance, in his first inaugural speech [[Abraham Lincoln]] argued that:<blockquote>Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible. The rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States: from George Washington 1789 to George Bush 1989 |url=https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/lincoln1.asp |access-date=2022-10-02 |website=avalon.law.yale.edu}}</ref></blockquote>However, liberal proponents for the right to self-determination by minority groups contradict this notion by arguing that, in cases where the minority is not able to become the majority, and that minority is territorially concentrated and does not want to be governed by the majority, it may serve the best interest of the state to allow the secession of this group.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Beran |first=Harry |date=March 1984 |title=A Liberal Theory of Secession |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9248.1984.tb00163.x#:~:text=The%20claim%20is%20made%20that,is%20morally%20and%20practically%20possible. |journal=Political Studies |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=26–27 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9248.1984.tb00163.x |s2cid=144826573 |via=Sage Journals}}</ref>