Drawing Electoral Boundaries in Independence Referendums: What People for What State?

This Paper investigates the practice of drawing electoral boundaries in independence referendums. The electoral boundaries in an independence referendum have two very important symbolic consequences in regards to identity. Firstly, the presence of an independence referendum is a statement that a people exist, and that such people have a right to decide whether they wish to create their own independent sovereign state. As such, it is both a marker that a nation exists, and that nationhood can lead to statehood. Secondly, how the collectivity that has a right to decide on the issue is defined and bounded is crucial in defining the future demos and its identity. Drawing on examples from Montenegro, New Caledonia, South Sudan and Scotland among others, different ways of defining the group and mechanisms used to draw its boundaries in the form of the eligible electorate are considered. From ethnic or cultural markers to residency or citizenship, each mode adopted presents controversies and may have lasting consequences on the future definition of the collective “we”. The Paper uncovers how those boundaries are negotiated and their potential consequences. For a start, drawing the boundaries of the electorate who is to decide on statehood is often crucial to the referendum outcome. Furthermore, who gets a say, and how the referendum campaign will engage with them or not, has important implications for the legitimacy of the proposed new state, and the relationship between the former minority - now to potentially become the majority - and the new resulting minorities.