Brexit allows us to celebrate the spirit of governed consent
The Power of Exit
The right to secede is thus a necessary condition of all worthwhile human bonds, whether professional or personal, be they between individuals or groups. Smaller units maximize the opportunity for and potential impact of this kind of secession. For freedom to prevail, governments must remain both small and close to those whom they govern, accountable and responsive rather than distant and opaque. Decisions that affect the citizen ought to be made in close proximity to the citizen; within reach, as it were.
This principle is, it turns out, enshrined in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union, which offers us an important lesson on the practice of politics. Confronted with the strength and majesty of ink on paper, power seems to be everywhere unimpressed, and perfectly able to find a saving construction that clears its path.
The Constitution has been similarly powerless to stem the rising tide of imperious, despotic power, powerless to fulfill the promises and high principles of the Declaration. Independence Day, though, reminds us of the revolutionary remedies set forth in the Declaration. Secession and outright abolition remain available to us according to a law that cannot be abrogated by kings, legislatures, or any other government body—according, that is, to natural law.
Secession Movements Around the World
Just as the peaceful forces of technology and commerce have increasingly connected the world, its people have felt the need to reassert their independence in the face of meddlesome, monolithic governments. Thus do we find secessionist movements all over the world.
Here in the United States, Texas and Vermont have long played host to active secessionists who see their home states as culturally distinct and maintain their right to self-determination. The Texas and Vermont case studies reveal the attractiveness of the secession solution to elements of both the political left and right. As a response to the excesses of far-away power centers, secessionism appeals to people with a wide range of substantive political commitments and ideologies.
In Canada, the Quebec sovereignty movement has similarly agitated for political independence, citing both cultural and religious differences from the rest of Canada (which we might call British Canada).
The Catalonia region, already one of Spain’s several “autonomies,” continues to fight for its independence, even as the Spanish government has consistently worked to hinder its efforts. And Brexit has again buoyed the spirit of Catalan separatists, with the head of the region’s government, Carles Puigdemont, saying, “[Brexit] demonstrates that it is perfectly possible to take a decision about sovereignty as all other countries do.”
These are just a few of the many such movements operating in the world today, hoping to peacefully withdraw from larger political entities that are perceived as not representing their views, cultures, and interests.
The Ultimate Declaration of Self-Rule
Carried to its conclusion, this right to secede—to divide and devolve political power ever further—can extend not only to nations and regions, but to still smaller political units like counties and cities, culminating finally in the ability of each individual to live as a self-governing sovereign. As Murray Rothbard wrote:
[O]nce one concedes that a single world government is not necessary, then where does one logically stop at the permissibility of separate states? If Canada and the United States can be separate nations without being denounced as being in a state of impermissible “anarchy,” why may not the South secede from the United States? New York State from the Union? New York City from the state? Why may not Manhattan secede? Each neighborhood? Each block? Each house? Each person? But, of course, if each person may secede from government, we have virtually arrived at the purely free society, where defense is supplied along with all other services by the free market and where the invasive State has ceased to exist.
The world’s political classes, seeking to consolidate their power, can generally be relied upon to stand in the way of such movements. Like their counterparts in Washington, the EU’s progressive and socialist champions believe that centralized power, entrusted to qualified experts, can be made to serve worthy ends. It would seem, though, that power is the master rather than the servant, that it has ends of its own.
The world must relearn the libertarian lessons of the Declaration. Salutary global interconnectedness need not entail political centralization of the kind represented by the European Union; in fact, it depends on just the opposite, the escape hatch provided by the right to secede from, or to abolish, a government that has gone beyond its mandate, violating our rights rather than protecting them.
This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.
