Democracy is more effective than authoritarian governments in dealing with conflicting nationalist aspirations because it offers inclusive and peaceful solutions rather than suppressive ones.

Virtually every state today faces the dilemma of dealing with movements for self-determination. The solution does not lie in creating new states but in making existing states more democratic and equal. This ensures that people with different cultural and ethnic identities live and co-exist as partners and equal citizens within the country.

In a democracy, the political identity of a citizen should encompass the different identities which people may have. This is crucial because it would be dangerous if intolerant and homogenising forms of identity and nationalism are allowed to develop, as authoritarian governments often promote.

Democracy also recognises that granting independent statehood to every distinct cultural group is neither possible nor desirable. It could lead to formation of states too small to be economically and politically viable and multiply the problems of minorities. Therefore, the right to national self-determination has been reinterpreted to mean granting certain democratic rights for a nationality within a state.

Finally, dealing with such demands requires considerable generosity and skill, which democratic systems are better equipped to provide through negotiation and accommodation rather than through force and suppression.