A Macroanalysis of Secessionist Tactics

Abstract

This chapter begins the transition from the case studies to the final sections of the book in which it zooms out to view the dynamics of secession from a wide angle and to test the theory in a large-N format. It first describes the data on secessionist movements by excluding all of the cases prior to 1945 because the strategic playing field for secessionists was different in earlier periods, and removing cases where the strategic playing field is substantially different. The chapter then explains how they were sorted into the six secessionist kinds. The chapter also elaborates the data used for the dependent variable: compellence and normative appeal. To study compellence tactics, it presented new data on secessionist methods and modelled three tactics in which the movements pursue independence via institutional means, civil resistance and nonviolent extra-institutional means, and violent extra institutional means. To study normative appeal, it created new data on the rhetoric used by secessionist groups around the time they became active. Ultimately, the chapter presents a quantitative analysis in two dependent variables of tactics of compellence and normative appeal.