SOVEREIGNTY,

THE NATION
AND
SUPRANATIONALISM
SOVEREIGNTY
WHERE SOVEREIGNTY EMERGE?

• The concept of sovereignty was born in the

17th century, as a result of the emergence
of in Europe of the modern state.

Medieval period:
- Kings
- Emperors
Acknowledge a higher authority than themselves
in the form of God.
• Authority was divided, in particular between
spiritual and temporal sources of authority.

• However, as feudalism faded in the 15th and

16th centuries, the authority of transnational
institutions was replaced by that of centralizing
monarchies.

• For the first time, secular rulers were able to

claim to exercise supreme power, and this they
did in a new language of sovereignty.
WHAT IS SOVEREIGNTY?
• Means absolute and unlimited power.

• Sovereignty can either refer to supreme

authority or to unchallengeable political
power

• According to Eric Brahm, sovereignty is the

possession of absolute authority within a
bounded space.
TWO KINDS OF SOVEREIGNTY

•Legal sovereignty

•Political sovereignty
• Jean Bodin
- claimed that the sovereign monarch was constrained by
the existence of higher law, in the form of the will of God or
natural law.
- the sovereignty of temporal rulers was therefore
underpinned by divine authority.

• Thomas Hobbes
- described sovereignty in terms of power rather than
authority.
- defined sovereignty as a monopoly of coercive power
and advocate that it be vested in the hands of a single ruler.
LEGAL SOVEREIGNTY

• Is based upon the belief that ultimate and final

authority resides in the laws of the state.

• This is a de jure sovereignty, the supreme power

defined in term of legal authority.

• Based upon the right to require somebody to

comply, as defined by law.
POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY
• Is not in any way based upon the claim to
legal authority but is concerned simply about
the actual distribution of power.
• This is de facto sovereignty

• Political sovereignty, therefore refers to the

existence of a supreme political power,
possessed of the ability to command
obedience because it monopolizes coercive
force.
INTERNAL SOVEREIGNTY
• Refers to the distribution of power within the state,
and leads to questions about the need for
supreme power and its location within the
political system.

• Refers to the internal affairs of the state and the

location of supreme power within.
• Internal sovereignty is therefore a political
body that possesses ultimate, final and
independent authority; one whose decisions
are binding upon all citizens, groups and
institutions in society.
EXTERNAL SOVEREIGNTY
• Is related to the state’s role within the
international order and to whether or not it is
able to operate as an independent and
autonomous actor.

• Refers to the state’s place in the international

order and therefore to its sovereign
independence in relation to other states.
 Bodin and Hobbes emphasized that
sovereignty was the only alternative to
disorder, chaos, and anarchy. Yet this is
precisely what a rigorous application of the
principle of national sovereignty would turn
international politics into.
In the absence of some supreme
international authority, disputes between rival
states will surely lead to armed conflict and
war, just as without an internal sovereign
conflict among individuals leads to brutality
and injustice.