- 3-
less than four-fifths of the population of Brighton. But 120,000
people may have many different opinions on how they should be
governed. Even if the options are reduced to two or three, and
adequate steps are taken to ensure that everybody understands the
issues at stake, a referendum may not yield a satisfactory result.
If there is an overwhelming majority for one choice or other,
clearly there is no problem.
narrow one? We have to look no further than Northern Ireland to
see the fearful consequences that can arise when the policies
favoured by a majority are imposed on a substantial minority with
very different ideas.
But what if the majority is only a
As a general rule, we have tended to accept that the view
of a majority, as expressed through a referendum, or a general
election where the issue of independence was clearly understood to
be at stake, should prevail. But I suggest that one of the points
we might consider in the seminar is the extent to which account must
be taken of a strongly held minority view.
Let us, however, assume that we have a clearly expressed
view of the population of a given territory on their constitutional
future. Must we accept that view?
If the choice is for independence, the answer nowadays is
clearly yes.
Until a few years ago, it was assumed that independence
was an impossibility for states below a certain size and population.
But the limit has been gradually lowered, until finally it seems to
have been abandoned altogether. We already have the phenomenon of
sovereign, independent states with populations no greater than a
/medium