An historical comparison between the Southern secession movement of 1860 and the Soviet secession movements of today

Abstract

This thesis uses an historical interpretation of the Southern secession movement of 1860 in order to formulate a secession theory consisting of three separate elements: 1) the growth of political faction; 2) a characteristic of the factional clash which renders the resulting crisis particularly unsuitable for constitutional or governmental adjudication; and 3) the existence of a subordinate governmental infrastructure, controlled by the minority faction, which can be used to effect a secession movement. An historical review of the Southern secession is undertaken in light of the above secession theory in order to argue for the theory's validity; then, the theory is applied to the various Soviet secession movements with a view towards proposing U.S. policy options.