The year 2014 has marked the return of secessions as a challenge to existing European states. A referendum on Scottish independence was held in September, and the regional government of Catalonia may follow suit in November. Meanwhile, Ukraine faced secessionist referenda and uprisings in a number of its regions. But why do people demand the formation of new states? A new EHES Working Paper by Marvin Suesse at Humboldt University of Berlin evaluates economic theories of secession.
![]() |
Participants at a pro-independence protest in Kyiv, Ukraine, in the summer of 1991, demand that “Ukraine leaves the USSR.” Picture credit: Unian. |
Although this theoretical framework offers some insights into state formation and dissolution, empirical evidence for it is scarce. This is partly because actual secessions are still relatively rare events. Even where we do observe them, they are difficult to compare across time and space. The new EHES paper by Marvin Suesse circumvents these constraints by looking at variation in the demand for secession expressed by millions of pro-independence protesters across 184 regions of the former Soviet Union. The paper concentrates on the late 1980s and early 1990s, because repression by Soviet authorities had become much more fragmented by that time.
The results indicate that regions that were most different from the center in Moscow in terms of language, ethnicity, religion, or historical experience, saw more secessionist protests on average. Most remarkably, larger regions saw a higher intensity of protests per capita. This supports the theory of the “Size of Nations”. The evidence is further strengthened by the fact that size seems to have acted as a “threshold” condition that determined whether there were any pro-independence protests in a region at all. Very small regions did not experience any secessionist pressure, notwithstanding their ethno-cultural differences with Moscow.
But how was this demand for secession translated into actual policy? The paper also shows that regional elites in the late Soviet Union were actively engaged in secessionist policies, such as issuing separatist declarations and laws. But their determinants seem to have been quite different. To a certain extent, regional elites may have been much more concerned about power considerations than preference heterogeneity with regard to the center. Only once we are able to understand the interplay between popular demand for secession, and the interests of local elites in shaping and transmitting those demands into actual policy, will we be able to fully understand the breakup of states.
The blog post was written by Marvin Suesse, a PhD student at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
The working paper can be found here.
Wow, great post.
ReplyDeleteThanks Marvin for this post. I am very happy to know that you are PHD students. Your university is a famous university. Please click to explore about copy content checker for better help students.
ReplyDeleteGlad to know this information.
ReplyDeletelast few days i try found something like that, at last i found something. thank you so much. explore more to see the sample of quality writing services.
ReplyDeleteThank you Marvin because of this submit. I will be very happy to learn that you will be PHD pupils. The school can be a popular school. You should click here concerning replicate articles checker regarding far better aid pupils.
ReplyDeleteThe theoretical framework offers client to the insights formation, then the website looking more good to the user like me and I am happy with that because the Framework looking nice to me.
ReplyDeleteThe overall nations and the overall accounting factors are really important to know about the inner view of those peoples. this site will give you some handy tips and guide to write your term and others academic papers.
ReplyDeleteA blog of the positive check in which you can see the economics and the historical society. Match your idea from this blog and see the rewriting fairy tales from this useful area. You can also get the idea about the Empirical determinants of secession.
ReplyDeleteSmart work! I really appreciate you for the effort you've put in this article. Just look here and get top tips of paraphrasing. Get in touch with us.
ReplyDeleteAn area of the positive check where you can enjoy the best economics section with this society. You can watch the secession the soviet breakup all in this small article. You can visit website and can get the pages of the demonstration.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this quality information with us. I really enjoyed reading. Will surely going to share this URL with my friends.
ReplyDeletecontabilidade bh
I would strongly love to recommend the services of the best team of dark web hackers. They are professional and very discreet in carrying out their jobs, they have the best customer service agents and satisfaction at heart. If you have any services you wish to contact them for, go on contact@wizardcharlesgrouphackers.com or wizardcharlesgrouphackers@gmail.com, WhatsApp +31 6 84990027, They help track and monitor your cheating partner's phone without his idea, clear or erase criminal records as well as repair a bad credit score, all social media hacks, Recovery lost Funds from scammers / Cryptocurrency / Binary / Forex / Recovery of Stolen Bitcoin and many others. website : https://wizardcharlesgrouphackers.com/.n/
ReplyDelete