25
may have to defer to the majority opinion as long as the dissenters are granted regular
opportunities to contribute to the review of the internal political system
42
. Egregious
violations of human rights would presumably disable the victims’ autonomy and their
critical capacity of review, and we would be justified in denying the claim of an aspiring
national group if severe oppression for a portion of the population is likely to result.
It is beyond the scope of this paper to consider the details of the specific
institutional framework that would satisfy this argument’s requirement that there be
opportunities for regular and substantial review. However, institutional features would
most likely take the form of procedural regulations ensuring access to what may loosely
be termed the internal political process. This may entail far less than the regular elections
in Western democratic countries, and, at the extreme end of the spectrum, we may find a
requirement of a ‘one-off’ periodic review by each generation
43
. Anything less than this
would not satisfy the liberal argument that this paper has set forth. The Iraqis who may
find that they object to certain measures proposed in the Iraqi constitution may have
reason to be disappointed with this position. Unfortunately, however, even this modest
argument may be difficult to realize in practice, as a ‘one-off’ generational review of the
political system is more than what certain aspiring national groups may want to allow.
42
Such a group may strongly resemble John Rawls’ description of the ‘decent hierarchical’ society. Cf.
Rawls, J., The Law of Peoples; with The Idea of Public Reason Revisited. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1999.
43
Cf. J.J. Rousseau: “…for an arbitrary government to be legitimate, the people would, in each generation,
have to be master of accepting or rejecting it, but in that case the government would no longer be
arbitrary”. Bk.I, Ch.4, The Social Contract. Gourevitch, V., Editor, Rousseau – The Social Contract and
other later political writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1997, p.45.
Convention