State-to-National Minority Relationship and Internal Conflicts, Violence, and Secession

Abstract

This paper adduces examples to show that internal conflicts between a national minority and the majority that escalate into violence and/or a demand to secede are due to asymmetrical power differences not only along the horizontal (social) power axis, but also, most importantly, along the vertical (political) power axis. The paper argues that identity differences (whether ethnic, or socially or politically constructed) that emphasize inequalities between the national groups are a necessary, but not sufficient condition, and that it is the asymmetrical power relation between the state and the majority (power holders) and national minority groups that triggers escalation of conflicts into violence and/or a quest for secession. An asymmetrical or unbalanced power relation between the state and national minority groups jeopardizes a primary normative expectation of a minority group’s collective self-respect, which invokes a sense of belonging; when this normative expectation is assaulted, it is most likely to cause moral outrage that becomes a source of mobilizing power. The paper cites examples of internal wars in former Yugoslavia and Sri Lanka as well other examples in which national minorities have either seceded or united.