4593 ASPECTS OF THE PLEBISCITE l6l 



sidered qualified to express themselves on such an issue, if 

 they desire to do so. 



So far the consideration of the subject has necessarily 

 preceded on the assumption of an analog}' of cause and 

 effect between the majority vote and rule in matters of in- 

 ternal government and a majority decision by the plebiscite 

 in the determination of sovereignty. Such analogy, how- 

 ever, does not exist.-" On the contrary, there is this funda- 

 mental difference : the decision on matters of political in- 

 terest in the internal affairs of a state is, as a rule, only 

 temporary ; the elections are periodical and a different po- 

 litical configuration can at any time convert a majority into 

 a minority and vice versa. Even where decisions are more 

 or less permanent in case of a direct or indirect vote on 

 laws, or the acceptance or amendment of a constitution, 

 the law can, by the same legal process, be repealed or 

 amended and the constitution changed to meet- new require- 

 ments. Change of sovereignty by enforced transfer of ter- 

 ritory from one state to another is considered and even by 

 the treaty effecting the transfer stipulated to be permanent. 

 By a plebiscite, deciding in favor of such a transfer by a 

 simple majority, fifty-one out of one hundred voters can 

 permanently force the remaining forty-nine into an objec- 

 tionable allegiance. ^^ A tie vote would prevent a decision 

 unless some other arbitrary way of breaking the tie were 

 resorted to. 



Be it assumed that a territory' has thus, by a majority 

 vote of 51 to 49 per hundred voters, severed its connection 

 from its parent state: if the 49 per cent of dissenters live 

 together in a district contiguous to the mother country', they 

 should be permitted to retain their old political connection. 

 Or they may, while living together, inhibit a stretch of 

 country which, by the secession of the larger section, would 



2° See also Stoerk, pp. 64-67. 



21 " The plebiscite means subjection, subordination of a minority 

 to a majority. A million citizens dispose of 800,000 others (without 

 counting the women and children), thwart tlicir interests and oppose 

 their desires" (Bonfils, no, 570). 



