You would think this list would exist SOMEWHERE
May 20, 2010 9:13 PM Subscribe
I need to find a list of every current secessionist movement. Catch: I really don't want to use wikipedia. Is there any legitimate source I could use?
Bonus points if there is a way to check the movement's viability/how seriously the parent country is taking it. For instance, Vermont is probably not ever actually going to secede and I don't think the United States government is particularly worried, whereas parent countries seem much more concerned in the cases of Abkhazia or Northern Cyprus. Thanks!
Bonus points if there is a way to check the movement's viability/how seriously the parent country is taking it. For instance, Vermont is probably not ever actually going to secede and I don't think the United States government is particularly worried, whereas parent countries seem much more concerned in the cases of Abkhazia or Northern Cyprus. Thanks!
There are 96 citations on that page, many of them to legitimate outlets like the BBC, The Council on Foreign Relations, and the US State Department. Some of the others are citations to websites of the secessionist groups themselves. Some of the citations are a bit questionable and some of the entries lack citations entirely, but on the whole it's a fairly well researched page and definitely a good starting point.
So, don't cite to Wikipedia directly. Instead, use it as a jumping off point, together with the citations there, to research each of the secessionist groups.
posted by jedicus at 9:26 PM on May 20, 2010 [7 favorites]
So, don't cite to Wikipedia directly. Instead, use it as a jumping off point, together with the citations there, to research each of the secessionist groups.
posted by jedicus at 9:26 PM on May 20, 2010 [7 favorites]
Oh, and of course you should consider contributing any information you find back to that Wikipedia page.
posted by jedicus at 9:27 PM on May 20, 2010
posted by jedicus at 9:27 PM on May 20, 2010
As Jedicus mentioned, check the references listed by wikipedia. As well, go to each individual page for each group on wikipedia, and check each of the references individually.
posted by MechEng at 9:38 PM on May 20, 2010
posted by MechEng at 9:38 PM on May 20, 2010
What counts as a "secessionist movement"? A few years ago there were people who were talking about a mass movement of like-minded folks to Vermont, in which they would achieve a majority of voters, and then elect state officials who would officially secede from the US.
Nothing ever came of it, though. Would you include them on your list?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:46 PM on May 20, 2010
Nothing ever came of it, though. Would you include them on your list?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:46 PM on May 20, 2010
additionally there have been secessionist movements of one stripe or caliber in multiple states, HI, AK, part of MN... but none of those are anything like, say the Basques. Might have to refine the term a little.
As to finding all/every contemporary movement might actually be a bit daunting. This is not a bad book... but it is an offline thing so might not fit in with the immediacy of need.
posted by edgeways at 10:17 PM on May 20, 2010
As to finding all/every contemporary movement might actually be a bit daunting. This is not a bad book... but it is an offline thing so might not fit in with the immediacy of need.
posted by edgeways at 10:17 PM on May 20, 2010
This site has a bunch in alphabetical order -- I don't know how current they are and I don't think the site has been updated since 2003; the author published a US-specific book in 2007. The author is good about answering his email (I'm actually researching some Great Depression secessionist movements right now), so he might be a place to start for sources.
posted by AzraelBrown at 6:13 AM on May 21, 2010
posted by AzraelBrown at 6:13 AM on May 21, 2010
I think you're looking for something like the Middlebury Institute's list of active secessionist groups. They're obviously pretty well invested in the program of secession, but I don't think that disqualifies them from being able to compile a useful list of this sort. If anything, I'd trust them more, as they have an interest in finding and publicizing these groups.
Unfortunately, this is US-specific, but I think you'll find that most non-US secessionist groups aren't going to conduct their business in English, so keeping track of all of them in any given place is rather difficult. The suggestion of the CIA World Factbook is a good one, as any trend which is both serious enough to cause a threat to a sovereign government (and public enough not to be worth hiding) tends to show up there rather quickly.
posted by valkyryn at 6:20 AM on May 21, 2010
Unfortunately, this is US-specific, but I think you'll find that most non-US secessionist groups aren't going to conduct their business in English, so keeping track of all of them in any given place is rather difficult. The suggestion of the CIA World Factbook is a good one, as any trend which is both serious enough to cause a threat to a sovereign government (and public enough not to be worth hiding) tends to show up there rather quickly.
posted by valkyryn at 6:20 AM on May 21, 2010
I don't know if this is precisely what you're looking for, but this research center does a lot of work on domestic terrorism from a scholarly perspective and has a lot of information on police and civilian perceptions of domestic/ international terrorist organizations. So this can get you towards the 'how serious is the parent country taking it' question.
posted by _cave at 6:28 AM on May 21, 2010
posted by _cave at 6:28 AM on May 21, 2010
What counts as a "secessionist movement"?
I swear a different AskMe led me to this document, but here is an unpublished academic paper on de facto states, which lays out the criteria fairly well, including this quote from Scott Pegg:
posted by kittyprecious at 9:52 AM on May 21, 2010
I swear a different AskMe led me to this document, but here is an unpublished academic paper on de facto states, which lays out the criteria fairly well, including this quote from Scott Pegg:
The de facto state is a secessionist entity that receives popular support and has achieved sufficient capacity to provide governmental services to a given population in a defined territorial area over which it maintains effective control for an extended period of time.You may want to look through the author's Works Cited for more info.
posted by kittyprecious at 9:52 AM on May 21, 2010
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posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:19 PM on May 20, 2010 [2 favorites]