These pages reflect on the connection, at first
sight evident, between the democratic principle and the right to decide. However,
this work highlights some of the contradictions in which certain of its supporters
fall and it defends. On the contrary, the need to establish that the relationship
between the principle of the rule of law and the democratic principle cannot give
either preeminence over the other. The reason lies in that the democratic principle
cannot be understood as the mere sum of particular wills of a specific community,
but rather as an expression of the conditions that ensure the formation of a rational
political will. The democratic principle can only be understood from a normative,
and not factual, conception of sovereign power.
Cite this paper
Sánchez, J. J. J. (2014). Democratic Principle and the Right to Decide: The Case of Catalan Secession. Open Access Library Journal, 1, e860. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1100860.
See Scotland Analysis (2013) Devolution and the Implications of Scottish Independence, February 2013, in which we see in its annex, on which the report is largely built, all reflection revolves around the Treaty of Union, 1707, from which some conclusions are obtained: The union was made freely by Scotland and England and this led to the dissolution of Scotland as a state, so there can be no reversion. And that Treaty does not currently sound as a treaty in international law. These statements enable them to conclude that the rest of the UK will continue to exercise the existing powers of the United Kingdom itself, Scotland being born as a new state, with all the disadvantages that such birth entails, especially initiating its incorporation into the European Union.
Habermas, J. (1996) Between Facts and Norms. Contribution to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy. Trans. by Rehg, W., The MIT Press, Cambridge, 455.
Instituto de Estudios Autonómicos (2013) Informe sobre los procedimientos legales a través de los que los ciudadanos y las ciudadanas de Catalunya pueden ser consultados sobre su futuro político colectivo, Barcelona.
Habermas, J. (1996) The Inclusion of the Other, Studies in Political Theory. In: Cronin, C. and De Greiff, P., Eds., The MIT Press, Cambridge, 253 and ff.
Schmitt, C. (1996, 1938) The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes. Meaning and Failure of a Political Symbol. Trans. Schwab, G. and Hilfstein, E., Greenwood Press, London, 44-45.
In this respect, see Rawls’ refelections on the vote in a constitutional democracy in Rawls (1993) Political Liberalism. Columbia University Press, New York, 241.