Review by Choice Review
This provocative book is in favor of, well, Balkanization. Conventional defenses of democracy that begin and end with existing states, Waters (Indiana Univ.) argues, are too restrictive. Instead of offering elaborate requirements based on language, ethnicity, and sustainability, he suggests a new rule by which the right to form a new state requires just two things: "physical proximity and a decision to create a political community" (p. 136). Waters offers an interesting, sophisticated historical review of secession and self-determination, with case studies that both support and question the central argument. He concedes that smaller states may be more vulnerable, but he does not devote serious attention to the broader question of size and democracy. Aside from a few references to the Civil War, Waters--like too many students of comparative politics--ignores the case of the US, in particular James Madison's discussion in "Federalist No.10" of the vulnerability of small states to oppressive majorities: the "greater [the] variety of parties and interests ... [the] less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens." This is a strange omission from an otherwise thorough study. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. --Edward V. Schneier, emeritus, City College of the City University of New York
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
