The Limits of Culture in the Politics of Self-Determination

Abstract

In this article, I take issue with a particular kind of liberal approach to self-determination which I refer to as culturalism. Encompassing both supporters and opponents of the right to self-determination, culturalism assumes that a normative defence of the right to self-determination stands or falls on the question of its instrumental importance to the preservation of a nation's distinctive culture. My argument, in contrast, is that in normative terms self-determination most fundamentally embodies a democratic claim. It is a nation's right to determine its own future as free as possible from external interference or domination by an external power. This is an expression of the political principle that legitimacy flows from the consent of the governed which, in this particular context, means that nations claim the right to choose how and by whom they will be governed, regardless of their cultural distinctiveness. My intention is not to construct a defence of the right to self-determination, but instead to show how culturalists obscure crucial aspects of the claim, thereby reducing our capacity to address the challenge of nationalism in a just and effective manner.