The question is simple enough: On Sunday, voters will be asked to respond yes or no to the question: “Do you want Catalonia to be an independent state, in the form of a Republic?” Opinion polls suggest that about half of Catalonia’s 7.5 million people will support breaking away from Spain.

The repercussions of a vote, if there is one, are not clear. Spain’s central government insists the referendum is illegal, must not go ahead and that the result will not be recognized.

Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona, is a wealthy region in northeastern Spain, has its own history, language and culture, and a high degree of autonomy, but Catalonians want more. They are not recognized as a separate nation under the Spanish constitution and feel that their rich region has long put more into Spain than it has received in return.

Its people have had many votes on the issue of separation but pressure for a vote on self-determination has grown over the past five years, culminating in today’s vote.

So the two governments – one in Madrid, one in Barcelona – are now on a collision course, the political El Clásico. Madrid insists the vote will not go ahead but Catalonians insist it will and that Catalonia will declare its independence from Spain within 48 hours of a victory for the yes campaign.

Unlike the Kurds, who voted overwhelmingly last week to separate from Iraq, Catalans, who live in an autonomous region in Spain’s northeast, are not driven by an external threat or oppression. They live in the prosperous heart of Europe, and they are doing just fine. If Catalonians were being persecuted, shot on sight, jailed without charge, tortured, starved or ethnically cleansed, they might have a case. But that is not the case.

Like citizens of other countries, Catalans want to be consulted on their future. This means that a referendum on secession from Spain is not necessarily the only response to a desire for self-determination. There is actually a significant percentage of Catalans who approve of holding a referendum but do not directly support the idea of Catalonia becoming an independent country, especially if it is not sanctioned by Madrid. According to various polls conducted over the past three years, at least one-third of the 70-80 percent of Catalans who support a referendum would only favor holding this referendum if it were previously negotiated with the central government. Similarly, recent polling shows that only 34 percent of Catalans think the upcoming unilateral referendum meets the necessary guarantees to be declared legal and valid.

In the run-up to the vote, Catalan officials have accused Spanish authorities of trying to suppress the people’s democratic rights. The UN Human Rights Council has made much the same point. But hastening the breakup of a state cannot be qualified by the right of its provinces to decide for themselves how they want to be governed and by whom.

Perhaps Catalonians have a truly democratic demand. But it is important to abide by the constitution of a democracy. A unilateral act of separation flies in the face of the rule of law.

Citizens of any country want and expect to play a greater role in government. But it would be dangerous for a democracy to allow one segment of the population to impose their agenda on the larger society. It would set a dangerous precedent for other countries struggling with similar movements.

In almost every country at any one time in history, a certain category of society has sought, for a whole host of reasons, greater autonomy, to the point of breaking away from the mother ship and declaring an independent state. However, a vote for independence is not the best way to handle the conflict. Divided societies need power-sharing strategies to defuse conflicts.