What Is Sovereignty?

Question

What is sovereignty, and why is it the foundational concept of modern political thought? The question arises because sovereignty defines the location of ultimate political authority, and different answers to this question produce radically different theories of government.

Quick Answer

Sovereignty is the supreme authority within a political community. It is the power to make and enforce law, to declare war and peace, to tax and spend, and to exercise ultimate control over the territory and population. The concept emerged in early modern Europe as a way of conceptualizing the power of the emerging nation-state. Jean Bodin's Six Books of the Commonwealth (1576) provided the first systematic account: sovereignty is absolute, perpetual, and indivisible. Thomas Hobbes located sovereignty in the artificial person of the state, created by the social contract. Jean-Jacques Rousseau relocated sovereignty in the people, arguing that popular sovereignty is the foundation of legitimate government. Carl Schmitt's provocative claim that 'the sovereign is he who decides on the exception' emphasizes the extra-legal dimension of sovereign power.

Historical Wisdom

Jean Bodin developed the concept of sovereignty in response to the religious wars that tore France apart in the sixteenth century. For Bodin, sovereignty is the absolute and perpetual power of the commonwealth — the power to give law to subjects without their consent. The sovereign is not bound by the law it makes, but it is bound by divine law, natural law, and the fundamental laws of the realm.

Thomas Hobbes transformed the concept of sovereignty in Leviathan (1651). For Hobbes, sovereignty is created by the social contract: individuals in the state of nature agree to authorize a sovereign who will maintain peace and security. The sovereign has absolute power, but it is not arbitrary: the sovereign's authority is derived from the consent of the governed, and its purpose is the preservation of the people.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau offered a radical alternative: popular sovereignty. In The Social Contract (1762), Rousseau argues that sovereignty belongs to the people as a whole. It is inalienable — it cannot be transferred to a representative — and indivisible — it cannot be divided among different branches of government.

Philosophical Perspectives

Carl Schmitt's Political Theology (1922) offers the most provocative modern theory of sovereignty. Schmitt argues that the sovereign is the one who decides on the exception — the one who has the power to suspend the normal legal order when the state is threatened. For Schmitt, sovereignty is fundamentally about the power to decide, not the power to make law. This theory has been enormously influential in legal and political theory.

Contemporary debates about sovereignty focus on whether the concept is still useful in an era of globalization, international law, and supranational institutions. Some theorists argue that sovereignty is being eroded by economic globalization, international human rights law, and the proliferation of international organizations. Others argue that sovereignty remains the fundamental organizing principle of the international system.

Lessons From Thinkers

From Bodin: sovereignty is absolute and perpetual power — the power to make law without being bound by it. From Hobbes: sovereignty is created by consent and justified by the preservation of peace. From Rousseau: sovereignty belongs to the people and is inalienable and indivisible. From Schmitt: sovereignty is the power to decide on the exception. From the contemporary debate: sovereignty is being transformed but not eliminated by globalization and international law.

Practical Application

The concept of sovereignty is central to debates about international law, humanitarian intervention, and the limits of state power. When a state claims the right to act without interference in its internal affairs, it is asserting its sovereignty. When the international community intervenes in a state to protect human rights, it is challenging that sovereignty. The question — what is sovereignty? — is therefore a practical question about the distribution of power in the world.