I was largely swayed by Horowitz’s arguments to reconsider secession as an inviolable right. In his essay, he argues that secessionist states remain heterogeneous and minority groups in the new state suffer, and that merely having the right to secede incentivises violence. To this, Horowitz suggests that we should focus on “fostering interethnic accommodation within states” and improving institutional frameworks to mitigate conflict. (14) He brings up electoral systems as an example -- “If election depends, at the margin, on the ability to gain some votes from members of groups other than one's own, then political leaders will behave in an ethnically conciliatory fashion for that purpose.” (15) However, I believe that Horowitz may be giving
