Sovereignty

Question 1

POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY

Answer 1

The ability to command obedience through the monopolisation of coercive force

Question 2

LEGAL SOVEREIGNTY

Answer 2

Ultimate and final authority resides in the laws of the state – Resides in US constitution which arguably resides in the people ‘ we the people’

Question 3

Scholte

Answer 3

Transborder world – Supranational organisations such as the EU are taking legal sovereignty away from the UK eg factortame case 1991

Question 4

INTERNAL SOVEREIGNTY

Answer 4

Refers to the internal affairs of the state and the location of supreme power within it –
An internal sovereign is a political body that possesses ultimate, final and independent authority, one whose decisions are binding upon all citizens groups and institutions in society.

Question 5

Montesquieu

Answer 5

Internal sovereignty should be fragmented through separation of powers to resist tyranny

Question 6

Rousseau

Answer 6

Rejected monarchical rule in favour of popular sovereignty – the ‘general will’

Question 7

JS Mill

Answer 7

‘Parliament can do anything except turn a man in to a woman’, THEN MISS PLATT CAME ALONG EH, it is a single, unchallengeable legal sovereign

Question 8

Madison

Answer 8

Wanted internal sovereignty to be divided – ‘power is a check to power’ – principles such as federalism and bicameralism. Wanted to devise institutions through which factional rivalry could be contained and political liberty ensured.

Question 9

EXTERNAL SOVEREIGNTY

Answer 9

Refers to state’s place in international order, usually where other states recognise the state as being ‘independent’ eg Palestine is not universally recognised as an independent state and is therefore not externally sovereign

Question 10

PARLIAMENTARY SOVEREIGNTY

Answer 10

Ultimate power continues to be held by the citizenship collectively, although can be exercised by a representative body on behalf of the people. The authority of this body to exercise power and make laws can be overturned if the people expressly wish it to be.

Question 11

A.V. Dicey

Answer 11

‘Parliamentary sovereignty’ – Parliament has the right to make or unmake any law

Question 12

Hobbes

Answer 12

Leviathan – Need for a concentration of sovereignty in order to maintain law and order.

Question 13

Mill

Answer 13

‘Parliament can do anything except turn a man into a woman’

Question 14

POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY

Answer 14

Ultimate power resides with a legislative assembly which is representative of the people -theoretically no authority should be higher and parliament should have the ability to do whatever it chooses

Question 15

Rousseau

Answer 15

The Social Contract – The idea of a sovereign community and state rooted in a form of participatory direct democracy that would serve the ‘general will’

Question 16

Jefferson

Answer 16

‘A representative government [is] a government in which the will of the people will be an effective ingredient.”

Question 17

Locke

Answer 17

Second Treatise of Government - Sovereignty lies with the people who loan their sovereignty to the English Parliament

Question 18

Jeffrey Goldsworthy

Answer 18

‘Parliament has unlimited legislative authority, and that the courts have no authority to judge statutes invalid.’

Question 19

Lincoln

Answer 19

Government by the people for the people

Question 20

Talmon

Answer 20

General will can be abused, also single indivisible whole / resulting in totalitarianism Tyranny of maj