Self-determination derives its evidence from the individual, not from the collective. The self (or subject) that acts freely first appears as a single person. This also has a linguistic manifestation. Autonomy, as self-legislation and thereby as a politically defined act, refers first and foremost to that collective that orders its own affairs, but in the restricted sense of (self-) legislation, not in a comprehensive sense of the determination of any action whatsoever. With the development of the idea of individual self-determination, mere autonomy proves to be too a narrow concept with reference to the actions of individuals and becomes expanded into self-determination. The concept of self-determination first refers to the individual, but then is also transferred to the collective, and finally becomes a technical term as the right of self-determination of peoples. Nevertheless, the understanding of the term derives primarily from the individual. What self-determination is, namely, freedom from alien determination, is self-evident from the point of view of the individual, but not from the point of view of the collective, for in the case of the collective there is always the question of which fields of action are left to the individual, thus the question of how far collective self-determination goes.

In principle, every collective can become a subject of self-determination, and this subject can have any degree of self-determination. In this book only the political field will be considered. The collectives under consideration here are those that organize their common life in a comprehensive way, or make a claim to do so, and in particular do not recognize a higher authority. In the language of modern political theory, these are sovereign polities. This corresponds to the prevailing view of a right of self-determination of peoples. In the common Article 1 of the human rights Covenants of 1966, the first paragraph declares, “All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.” Although sovereignty is not spoken of here, or even sovereign states that peoples create, this follows from the other statements of the article. A collective that can freely determine its political status determines itself; no one has the right to dictate anything to it. The emphasis on the pursuit of economic, social, and cultural development reinforces this statement yet again.