Les référendums d'autodétermination: démocratisation ou balkanisation du monde ?

Abstract

This paper proposes a multi-scaled analysis of the self-determination referendums. It shows the great diversity of actors from the local to the international level, and the articulation of different representations and strategies on each scale. It concludes that the democratic ideal projected in this kind of vote has to be nuanced. Indeed, two factors seem to limit the capacity of the self-determination referendum to allow the sovereign and direct affirmation of a people on a territory, a formal and a practical one. Concerning the formal factor, the self-determination referendum organization needs to solve three prior problems: who is the « people » who is going to vote ? on which territory ? and finally, who is going to define « people » and territory and with which legitimacy ? Concerning the practical factor, the « right of peoples to self-determination » are embodied before and after the referendum in local diffusion of national and territorial ideology, and in a play of reciprocal validations from UN and individually from each State in the frame of bilateral recognition. Thus, the birth of a new State by referendum is depending on the results of the vote as well as on the ability of local politicians, on the evolution of the international acceptation of self-determination principle and on the international political context.

Keywords

• self-determination
• referendum
• sovereignty
• democracy
• nationalism
• territorial ideology