What is the polar opposite of the freedom, within any currently existing territory claimed by a monopoly governing system, to choose one’s governing system? It is the expansion or attempted expansion by that territorial monopolist (state or empire) into other lands and territories that it currently does not rule or dominate. This is called expansionism. This forecloses the freedom to choose one’s system of government that is present in these other lands. Such expansions are often by outright invasions. Sometimes they are by threats, sometimes by annexations, and sometimes by revolutions and setting up puppet governments. Sometimes they are by infiltrations of settlers, followed by political movements and calls for amalgamations. Sometimes majority rule leads to votes that expand a government while suppressing the rights of minorities to choose their own governments within the affected territories.
Panarchism and expansionism are opposites.
7:33 am on June 4, 2013
