You see, there is this magical thing called state sovereignty. And because of it the state, granted status, anointed and blessed by some magical higher power(s), owns political and territorial elections. Nobody, no group, no locality, no sub-state entity or organization can hold an election and choose a government without the existing state approving of it. Why is that? It’s because the existing state has been blessed by the higher magical power(s). Take the state’s word for it, because there is no other reason. Declaring independence is not sufficient. That leads to war. Self-determination is not sufficient. One must get permission from the existing state or states. The state owns your political choice to have an election or declare independence, and it bars exit as a rule, leaving no way out but resistance of various kinds or possibly persuasion. But there is no routine self-determination. And that’s because the state has this magical thing called sovereignty that either confers the veto power or represents its receipt by the state from other higher and unnamed powers. And such a higher power is often designated as residing in the sovereignty of the people. Try to find it there, if you can. It is yet another magical power, invoked for the evident purpose of exercising powers for which no other reasonable justification can be found. (For further discussion and historical context, see here and here.)

And partly because of this magical arrangement, Ukraine and many other states condemn elections being held in Ukrainian breakaway regions. We read “Russia supports the elections, but the UN, EU and the United States say it violates Ukraine’s constitution and the terms of the cease-fire.” Because of their quests for power and territorial dominance, the existing states are squabbling over who owns an election or can have one, or who can have their own government, or who can self-determine their government.

They subscribed to self-determination as members of the UN (see here) with such language as “All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.” But the quest for power and territorial control trumps the principles they subscribed to in the past. The invocation of state sovereignty is the hand-waving of the magician to divert attention from the absence of rationales and the substitution of magical, really raw, power for that absence.

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