Amanda L. Spiegel
Huntingdon College
International Studies and Political Science Capstone
Fall 2007
Overview
• Defining Sovereignty
• The Rise of the Sovereign State
• The Changing Role of Sovereignty
Sovereignty Defined…
“Sovereignty is the idea that there is a final and
absolute political authority in the political
community, and no final and absolute authority
exists elsewhere.” –Hinsley
• Supreme Authority within a territory
• Absolute authority among a community
• Modern Powers of a Sovereign Nation
The Rise of the Sovereign State
• Developed in political ideology
– Classical theory of sovereignty
– Contemporary theory of sovereignty
• Developed in practice
– Divine Right of Kings
– Thirty Years’ War
– The French Revolution
ARISTOTLE
ARISTOTLE
Politics (350 BCE)
“Man is by nature a political animal.”
• Organization of the polis
• Development of the state-citizen relationship
• Communitarian ideal
JEAN BODIN
JEAN BODIN
Six Books on the Commonwealth (1576)
“La puissance absoluë et perpetuelle
d’une Republique.”
• Definition of the commonwealth
• Examined the causes for the preservation and
the destruction of a nation-state
FRIEDRICH HAYEK
FRIEDRICH HAYEK (1937)
• Monetary Sovereignty
• Consumer sovereignty
• Economic interdependence of nations
SAMUEL P. HUNTINGTON
SAMUEL P. HUNTINGTON
The Clash of Civilizations (1996)
“The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines
of the future.”
• Future conflict:
– A shift from ideological to cultural conflicts
• Challenger civilizations to Western civilization:
– Sinic and Islamic
The Rise of Sovereignty
• The works by classical and contemporary
political scientists developed the theory of
sovereignty
• The practice within historical events
further developed the theory of sovereignty
The Divine Right of Kings
• Fortified throughout the Middle Ages
• Kantorowicz’s research of the king’s two
bodies
• Developed from the “two body” theory of
Christ
– corpus naturale
– corpus mysticum
The Social Contract Theory
• Advocated by Jean – Jacques Rousseau in his
work Principes du Droit Politique
• Develops the theory of popular sovereignty
• Builds on Aristotle’s citizen-state relationship
The Thirty Years’ War
• The Peace of Westphalia (1648)
– Treaty of Osnabruck
– Treaty of Munster
• Established territorial sovereignty
• Altered the relationship among a nationstate and its citizens
Self-Determination and
Sovereignty
• Woodrow Wilson and “Fourteen Points”
– Free trade
– Open agreements
– Democracy
– Self - determination
Fundamental Concepts
• Democracy and Sovereignty
• Tension between Sovereignty and Globalization
• Interdependence of order, legitimacy, and
general will
Krasner’s Elements of
Sovereignty
• Domestic Sovereignty
• International Legal Sovereignty
• Interdependence Sovereignty
• Westphalian Sovereignty
The Changing Role of Sovereignty
• Tension between Sovereignty and Globalization
• Increase in supra-national organizations, such
as the UN and EU
• Realization of cultural conflicts over territorial
disputes
Conclusion
• The theory of sovereignty has been developed by
political theory, as well as the events of history.
• An international society is not one with a single
interest, but one that embraces diversity.
• The nation-state is the grantor and challenger to
the changing role of sovereignty.
Further Reading…
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Bodin, Jean. Six Books on the Commonwealth. Oxford, England:
Alden Press, 1955.
Lake, David. "Reflection, Evaluation, Integration: The New
Sovereignty in International Relations." International Studies
Review Vol. 5, 2003.
Krasner, Stephen. “Sharing Sovereignty: New Institutions for
Collapsed and Failing States” International Security Vol. 29 No.
2, 2004.
Shinoda, Hideaki. Examining Sovereignty: From Classical Theory
to the Global Age. Basingstoke, England: Macmillan, 2000.
Williams, Phil, et al. Classical Readings and Contemporary
Debates in International Relations. Canada: Thomson
Wadsworth, 2006.