Secession in Western Democracies

There's no pre existing legal framework for doing this, so it has to be done new every time that a referendum is to be held. But we have had two peace secessions in western democracies. So even though a lot of western democracies do make secession legal or negotiable in some way, it still seems very, very difficult to get independence. A lot of people are a either involved in keeping ties to the central government, or a lot of loyalty to the central ent.