This book examines the simple but significant idea that ordinary citizens have the right to voice their opinion on the national boundary/identity question and to cast votes on it in a form of referendum. Citizen's voice and public deliberation mechanisms are powerless without a voting device. A vote without citizen's voice and public deliberation is fraught with danger; it escalates conflict rather than solving or managing it. It is necessary to combine referendum and public deliberation: a sort of deliberative referendum (Chapter 11). It is around this idea that this book brings together current work on the normative question of national boundaries with current work on deliberative democracy.

In the long history of human life, the national boundary/identity issue is largely decided by state powers and elites and/or by ruthless military force: ‘might’ defeated reason with regard to the boundary question. It is also true, historically, that the origins of state boundaries were accidental and that in most cases national boundaries were not made democratically. However, upon the arrival of the Enlightenment Movement and Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason, we can discern the beginning of a rational and democratic project.

Changing contemporary conditions make democratic choice increasingly possible. A number of new conditions which were absent, or at least hard to discern, have been created. They include the prevalence of democracy throughout the world, international support for and sympathy with minorities, and sophisticated communication systems which make people aware of minority issues quickly. Deliberative institutions, multiculturalism and the coexistence of multiple identities go a long way towards sustaining these new conditions. Moreover, the effectiveness of force as a means of solving boundary questions has been eroding. There is also a widespread belief that democracy can accommodate multiple identities and demands and can consequently help to manage problems of national identity. Under these conditions, democratic theories in the 1990s thoroughly rethought the boundary question using a new set of democratic ideas and devices, thus challenging the thesis that democracy cannot manage the boundary question. Today, with the deepening process of democratisation around the world, we are able to continue to enrich the great Enlightenment tradition to solve, settle and manage the national boundary/identity conflict in a rational, peaceful and democratic manner.