Sovereignty and the State

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Sovereignty and the State

• PS 314
• January 24th

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The Big Questions

• What is the nature of sovereignty?
• From where did sovereignty come?
• How can we account for the rise of the modern
  state?
• Is the reach of the state being curtailed by
  globalization?
• Is sovereignty being undermined by globalization?

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Sovereignty

• Sovereignty is the ultimate monopoly of
  coercion by a set of political institutions
  within a defined territory
• Sovereignty is an artifact of the modern era.
  Why?
• Theorists such as Jean Bodin (1530-96) and Thomas
  Hobbes (1588-1679) began thinking about
  sovereignty in the late16th and early 17th
  centuries, in the wake of cataclysmic upheavals
  in Europe
• Sovereignty emerged as the successor to the dual
  concepts of ultramontanism and divine right

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The Theory of Sovereignty

• Bodin, in his The Six Books of the Commonwealth,
  is the first theorist to outline the idea that
  power lies in the state, not in the person.
• Asked not the question, Who are the rulers and
  what are their powers?, but rather, What is the
  state and how is it constructed?
• However, Bodin still does not depart from the old
  concept of divine right (which has important
  consequences).
• Hobbes, on the other hand, begins an
  investigation of how states come to be.
• In doing so, he provides the springboard to the
  modern era, for he overturns the principle of
  divine right.

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The Emergence of the State

• It is often argued that the appearance of state
  sovereignty was cemented by the Treaty of
  Westphalia (1648), which established the
  so-called Westphalian system.
• Once of Krasners key points is that Westphalia
  is not exactly what it has been seen as by
  historians why not?
• However, by the time that we move into the 19th
  century and the Congress of Vienna, the
  possibility of state sovereignty provides the
  framework for the aspiration to
  self-determination

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Why did the modern state emerge?

• Within two centuries, Europe passed from
  medievalism ? city states and leagues ? modern
  states. For example, the first modern state is
  generally considered to be 17th century Prussia.
  Why did the state emerge?
• Two traditional explanations have been proffered
  by historians for the rise of the modern state
• success in warfare (neo-realism)
• The emergence of national markets (Marxism)
• Spruyt argues that there was a third, and perhaps
  most important factor at work sheer luck
  (unintended consequences).
• The outcome was a combination of Darwinism,
  mutual empowerment, and (later) adaptation and
  mimicry.

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Contemporary Sovereignty

• Both Krasner and Spruyt remind us that
  sovereignty is a powerful tool in the modern
  world, despite globalization
• Both of them reject the notion that sovereignty
  is undermined by universalism, whether it be
  religious ideals (islamic fundamentalism) or
  secular ideals (human rights)
• Spruyt argues that the state is more powerful
  than ever before
• However, Krasner does concede that the state now
  has real competitors for power (i.e. NGOs)
• Neither sees the European Union as a
  fundamentally new form of organizing sovereignty
  for all

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