David P. Gauthier
- Published in print:
- 1979
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198246169
- eISBN:
- 9780191680939
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198246169.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter indicates a departure from the usual interpretation of Thomas Hobbes's political theory. Although there are differences between the presentation of the theory in Leviathan and the ...
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This chapter indicates a departure from the usual interpretation of Thomas Hobbes's political theory. Although there are differences between the presentation of the theory in Leviathan and the presentation in Hobbes's earlier political writings, little significance has been attached to them. The chapter examines Hobbes's initial theory, focusing upon those weaknesses that are at least partially overcome by the alterations in Leviathan. It includes a discussion of what Hobbes terms ‘sovereignty by acquisition’, since this is adequately explained only by the initial theory and fits uncomfortably into the framework of the later system. Before turning to the details, however, the chapter establishes one crucial distinction that Hobbes never sufficiently develops in any presentation of his political theory: the distinction between sovereign right and sovereign power.Less
This chapter indicates a departure from the usual interpretation of Thomas Hobbes's political theory. Although there are differences between the presentation of the theory in Leviathan and the presentation in Hobbes's earlier political writings, little significance has been attached to them. The chapter examines Hobbes's initial theory, focusing upon those weaknesses that are at least partially overcome by the alterations in Leviathan. It includes a discussion of what Hobbes terms ‘sovereignty by acquisition’, since this is adequately explained only by the initial theory and fits uncomfortably into the framework of the later system. Before turning to the details, however, the chapter establishes one crucial distinction that Hobbes never sufficiently develops in any presentation of his political theory: the distinction between sovereign right and sovereign power.
Dan Sarooshi
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199225774
- eISBN:
- 9780191710346
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199225774.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law
This book considers the exercise of sovereign powers by international organizations that include the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, and the European Union in order to answer ...
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This book considers the exercise of sovereign powers by international organizations that include the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, and the European Union in order to answer fundamental questions about the relationship between an international organization and its member states. In their membership of international organizations, states must confer some of their sovereign powers upon those organizations. This book develops a three-tiered typology of conferrals which ranges from agency relationships, to delegations of authority, to full transfers of power. The legal aspects of these conferrals are examined, and their implications for the growing importance of international organizations in international relations are assessed.Less
This book considers the exercise of sovereign powers by international organizations that include the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, and the European Union in order to answer fundamental questions about the relationship between an international organization and its member states. In their membership of international organizations, states must confer some of their sovereign powers upon those organizations. This book develops a three-tiered typology of conferrals which ranges from agency relationships, to delegations of authority, to full transfers of power. The legal aspects of these conferrals are examined, and their implications for the growing importance of international organizations in international relations are assessed.
DAN SAROOSHI
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199225774
- eISBN:
- 9780191710346
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199225774.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law
This introductory chapter begins with a brief description of the purpose of the book, which is to provide a conceptual and legal analysis of the exercise by international organizations of sovereign ...
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This introductory chapter begins with a brief description of the purpose of the book, which is to provide a conceptual and legal analysis of the exercise by international organizations of sovereign powers. It contends that the broad range of measures being taken by international organizations in the exercise of these powers has prompted domestic political and judicial actors and commentators to question the constitutionality and propriety of conferring these broad powers on organizations. There is, however, a considerable lack of clarity in discussion of these issues. An overview of the subsequent chapters is presented.Less
This introductory chapter begins with a brief description of the purpose of the book, which is to provide a conceptual and legal analysis of the exercise by international organizations of sovereign powers. It contends that the broad range of measures being taken by international organizations in the exercise of these powers has prompted domestic political and judicial actors and commentators to question the constitutionality and propriety of conferring these broad powers on organizations. There is, however, a considerable lack of clarity in discussion of these issues. An overview of the subsequent chapters is presented.
DAN SAROOSHI
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199225774
- eISBN:
- 9780191710346
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199225774.003.0009
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. The contestations between States over rival conceptions of sovereignty within international organizations are often the very same ...
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This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. The contestations between States over rival conceptions of sovereignty within international organizations are often the very same contestations of sovereignty that have been, and are still, occurring within nation-States. International organizations play an important role as a forum — transcendental to the State — where sovereign values that constrain the exercise of sovereign powers can be contested and developed. The challenge for international organizations exercising broad powers of government is to develop these values in conjunction with, rather than instead of, States and their organs of government.Less
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. The contestations between States over rival conceptions of sovereignty within international organizations are often the very same contestations of sovereignty that have been, and are still, occurring within nation-States. International organizations play an important role as a forum — transcendental to the State — where sovereign values that constrain the exercise of sovereign powers can be contested and developed. The challenge for international organizations exercising broad powers of government is to develop these values in conjunction with, rather than instead of, States and their organs of government.
Michael E. Meeker
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520225268
- eISBN:
- 9780520929128
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520225268.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Middle Eastern Cultural Anthropology
This chapter discusses the channels through which the local elites of the rural societies could have identified with and participated in the imperial system, and studies the relationship between ...
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This chapter discusses the channels through which the local elites of the rural societies could have identified with and participated in the imperial system, and studies the relationship between disciplinary association and sovereign power as seen in the architecture and ceremony of the Ottoman palace. It also reviews how the Ottomans included the eastern coastal region right after the conquest of Constantinople.Less
This chapter discusses the channels through which the local elites of the rural societies could have identified with and participated in the imperial system, and studies the relationship between disciplinary association and sovereign power as seen in the architecture and ceremony of the Ottoman palace. It also reviews how the Ottomans included the eastern coastal region right after the conquest of Constantinople.
Nick Vaughan-Williams
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748637324
- eISBN:
- 9780748652747
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748637324.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter traces Giorgo Agamben's engagement with and development of Michel Foucault's understanding of the biopolitical structures of the West in order to explore the possibilities of his ...
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This chapter traces Giorgo Agamben's engagement with and development of Michel Foucault's understanding of the biopolitical structures of the West in order to explore the possibilities of his approach for developing alternative border imaginaries. It begins with an exegesis of Agamben's work. Building upon Agamben, the chapter develops the concept of the generalised biopolitical border as an alternative to the geopolitical concept of the border of the state. Thinking in terms of the generalised biopolitical border unties an analysis of the limits of sovereign power from the territorial confines of the modern state and relocates such an analysis in the context of a global terrain that spans and decentres notions of ‘domestic’ and ‘international’ space.Less
This chapter traces Giorgo Agamben's engagement with and development of Michel Foucault's understanding of the biopolitical structures of the West in order to explore the possibilities of his approach for developing alternative border imaginaries. It begins with an exegesis of Agamben's work. Building upon Agamben, the chapter develops the concept of the generalised biopolitical border as an alternative to the geopolitical concept of the border of the state. Thinking in terms of the generalised biopolitical border unties an analysis of the limits of sovereign power from the territorial confines of the modern state and relocates such an analysis in the context of a global terrain that spans and decentres notions of ‘domestic’ and ‘international’ space.
Peter M. R. Stirk
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748636716
- eISBN:
- 9780748652754
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748636716.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter deals with the concept of sovereignty. No neglect has befallen it. Indeed, if anything, the concept is now made to do too much work. From the recognition that the occupier is not the ...
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This chapter deals with the concept of sovereignty. No neglect has befallen it. Indeed, if anything, the concept is now made to do too much work. From the recognition that the occupier is not the sovereign power which formed the core of the emerging concept of military occupation, statesmen and observers have moved on to presume that sovereignty must persist somewhere untarnished by the fact of military occupation. The chapter suggests that this is to fundamentally underestimate the fragility of polities subject to military occupation. Ironically, the attempt to mitigate the impact of military occupation by insisting upon the persistence of sovereignty or its rapid return to the occupied masks rather mitigates the threat to the community that such insistence seeks to protect it from.Less
This chapter deals with the concept of sovereignty. No neglect has befallen it. Indeed, if anything, the concept is now made to do too much work. From the recognition that the occupier is not the sovereign power which formed the core of the emerging concept of military occupation, statesmen and observers have moved on to presume that sovereignty must persist somewhere untarnished by the fact of military occupation. The chapter suggests that this is to fundamentally underestimate the fragility of polities subject to military occupation. Ironically, the attempt to mitigate the impact of military occupation by insisting upon the persistence of sovereignty or its rapid return to the occupied masks rather mitigates the threat to the community that such insistence seeks to protect it from.
Geoffrey Marshall
- Published in print:
- 1980
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198761211
- eISBN:
- 9780191695148
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198761211.003.0004
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
This chapter discusses sovereign legislative power, which means that Parliament can legislate for all persons and all places. It explains why sovereign legislative power has never enjoyed universal ...
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This chapter discusses sovereign legislative power, which means that Parliament can legislate for all persons and all places. It explains why sovereign legislative power has never enjoyed universal acceptance and why others have tried to disarm and reformulate the theory from within. Such reformulation has sometimes aimed at attacking one attribute of sovereignty by denying another, for example, denying its ‘indivisibility’ in order to reduce the impact of its illimitability. It is the ‘illimitability’ which has worried some political theorists, and made them wish to resolve or dissolve what has been described as the ‘problem’ or ‘dilemma’ of sovereignty.Less
This chapter discusses sovereign legislative power, which means that Parliament can legislate for all persons and all places. It explains why sovereign legislative power has never enjoyed universal acceptance and why others have tried to disarm and reformulate the theory from within. Such reformulation has sometimes aimed at attacking one attribute of sovereignty by denying another, for example, denying its ‘indivisibility’ in order to reduce the impact of its illimitability. It is the ‘illimitability’ which has worried some political theorists, and made them wish to resolve or dissolve what has been described as the ‘problem’ or ‘dilemma’ of sovereignty.
Jennifer Greiman
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823230990
- eISBN:
- 9780823241156
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823230990.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
“What is the hangman but a servant of law? And what is that law but an expression of public opinion? And if public opinion be brutal and thou a component part thereof, art thou not the hangman's ...
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“What is the hangman but a servant of law? And what is that law but an expression of public opinion? And if public opinion be brutal and thou a component part thereof, art thou not the hangman's accomplice?” Writing in 1842, Lydia Maria Child articulates a crisis in the relationship of democracy to sovereign power that continues to occupy political theory today. Is sovereignty, with its reliance on singular and exceptional power, fundamentally inimical to democracy? Or might a more fully realized democracy distribute, share, and popularize sovereignty, thus blunting its exceptional character and its basic violence? This book looks to an earlier moment in the history of American democracy's vexed interpretation of sovereignty to argue that such questions about the popularization of sovereign power shaped debates about political belonging and public life in the antebellum United States. In an emergent democracy that was also an expansionist slave society, the author argues, the problems that sovereignty posed were less concerned with a singular and exceptional power lodged in the state than with a power over life and death that involved all Americans intimately. Drawing on Alexis de Tocqueville's analysis of the sovereignty of the people in Democracy in America, along with work by Gustave de Beaumont, Lydia Maria Child, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville, this book tracks the crises of sovereign power as it migrates out of the state to become a constitutive feature of the public sphere.Less
“What is the hangman but a servant of law? And what is that law but an expression of public opinion? And if public opinion be brutal and thou a component part thereof, art thou not the hangman's accomplice?” Writing in 1842, Lydia Maria Child articulates a crisis in the relationship of democracy to sovereign power that continues to occupy political theory today. Is sovereignty, with its reliance on singular and exceptional power, fundamentally inimical to democracy? Or might a more fully realized democracy distribute, share, and popularize sovereignty, thus blunting its exceptional character and its basic violence? This book looks to an earlier moment in the history of American democracy's vexed interpretation of sovereignty to argue that such questions about the popularization of sovereign power shaped debates about political belonging and public life in the antebellum United States. In an emergent democracy that was also an expansionist slave society, the author argues, the problems that sovereignty posed were less concerned with a singular and exceptional power lodged in the state than with a power over life and death that involved all Americans intimately. Drawing on Alexis de Tocqueville's analysis of the sovereignty of the people in Democracy in America, along with work by Gustave de Beaumont, Lydia Maria Child, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville, this book tracks the crises of sovereign power as it migrates out of the state to become a constitutive feature of the public sphere.
Sarbani Sen
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198071600
- eISBN:
- 9780199080045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198071600.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
This chapter attempts to trace the path of exercise of the principle of popular sovereignty in the post-founding period in its third stage of redefinition. In the Indian constitutional tradition, in ...
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This chapter attempts to trace the path of exercise of the principle of popular sovereignty in the post-founding period in its third stage of redefinition. In the Indian constitutional tradition, in this third form, popular sovereign power expresses itself during periods of ‘constitutional politics’ in Ackerman's sense, through processes of constitutional transformation that break through existing procedures for constitutional change under Article 368, but which nevertheless creatively adapt present institutional forms to generate prolonged periods of discourse between the citizens and political leaders to arrive at a consensus on conflicting issues. This expression of popular sovereign power falls in between the direct exercise of sovereign power by the people to alter and abolish an arbitrary colonial government that occurred in the pre-founding period, and the proceduralized form of opinion and will formation serving to legitimate ordinary law-making in the nation state.Less
This chapter attempts to trace the path of exercise of the principle of popular sovereignty in the post-founding period in its third stage of redefinition. In the Indian constitutional tradition, in this third form, popular sovereign power expresses itself during periods of ‘constitutional politics’ in Ackerman's sense, through processes of constitutional transformation that break through existing procedures for constitutional change under Article 368, but which nevertheless creatively adapt present institutional forms to generate prolonged periods of discourse between the citizens and political leaders to arrive at a consensus on conflicting issues. This expression of popular sovereign power falls in between the direct exercise of sovereign power by the people to alter and abolish an arbitrary colonial government that occurred in the pre-founding period, and the proceduralized form of opinion and will formation serving to legitimate ordinary law-making in the nation state.
Fred Dallmayr
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813124575
- eISBN:
- 9780813134994
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813124575.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter discusses an alternative conception that is traceable to Athens and Jerusalem and which stands in stark opposition to the modern glorification of sovereign power, totalizing ideologies, ...
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This chapter discusses an alternative conception that is traceable to Athens and Jerusalem and which stands in stark opposition to the modern glorification of sovereign power, totalizing ideologies, and abstract procedures. It introduces Walter Lippmann, the author of The Good Society and pursues his argument in greater detail to see precisely how he wanted to obviate modern ills. It looks at a more recent reformulation of the idea of a “good society” and finally explores the implications of these initiatives in the present era.Less
This chapter discusses an alternative conception that is traceable to Athens and Jerusalem and which stands in stark opposition to the modern glorification of sovereign power, totalizing ideologies, and abstract procedures. It introduces Walter Lippmann, the author of The Good Society and pursues his argument in greater detail to see precisely how he wanted to obviate modern ills. It looks at a more recent reformulation of the idea of a “good society” and finally explores the implications of these initiatives in the present era.
Uday Singh Mehta
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264393
- eISBN:
- 9780191734571
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264393.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
Decolonization of the European empires in the twentieth century was spurred by the colonized based on two purposes: the desire for independence, and the desire to build a sovereign political ...
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Decolonization of the European empires in the twentieth century was spurred by the colonized based on two purposes: the desire for independence, and the desire to build a sovereign political identity. The most obvious feature of the first intention was the formation of anti-imperialist movements, organised under the banner ‘they must leave’. The latter was characterized by the establishment of constitutional government, which highlighted the identity of a novice country in a political and unified form and which featured a central source of power. These two purposes share a complex relationship. For power to be sovereign, independence must be gained first. Power cannot be obligated to the wishes of another power or constrained by the laws of another regime. The struggle for independence of European empires did not readily create the conditions for the exercise of a sovereign power. It was elusive at the moment of independence. This chapter discusses some of the implications of these two purposes, with emphasis on the second purpose and the Indian experience. It addresses questions such as: what is the meaning of collective identity to those newly independent countries in the context of politics; what were the pressures on the claims to political identity and unity; how did these pressures encourage a revolutionary mindset in the conceptualization of constitutional provisions and political power; and how does the struggle for political identity relate to the history of nation and its struggle for independence?Less
Decolonization of the European empires in the twentieth century was spurred by the colonized based on two purposes: the desire for independence, and the desire to build a sovereign political identity. The most obvious feature of the first intention was the formation of anti-imperialist movements, organised under the banner ‘they must leave’. The latter was characterized by the establishment of constitutional government, which highlighted the identity of a novice country in a political and unified form and which featured a central source of power. These two purposes share a complex relationship. For power to be sovereign, independence must be gained first. Power cannot be obligated to the wishes of another power or constrained by the laws of another regime. The struggle for independence of European empires did not readily create the conditions for the exercise of a sovereign power. It was elusive at the moment of independence. This chapter discusses some of the implications of these two purposes, with emphasis on the second purpose and the Indian experience. It addresses questions such as: what is the meaning of collective identity to those newly independent countries in the context of politics; what were the pressures on the claims to political identity and unity; how did these pressures encourage a revolutionary mindset in the conceptualization of constitutional provisions and political power; and how does the struggle for political identity relate to the history of nation and its struggle for independence?
Claus D. Zimmerman
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199680740
- eISBN:
- 9780191760686
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199680740.003.0002
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law, Company and Commercial Law
Large parts of the literature analyse monetary sovereignty as a static catalogue of state competences in monetary and financial matters. Approaching the concept of monetary sovereignty that way ...
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Large parts of the literature analyse monetary sovereignty as a static catalogue of state competences in monetary and financial matters. Approaching the concept of monetary sovereignty that way invites the undertaking of judgments over the degree to which a given state has preserved or lost its monetary sovereignty. The approach adopted in this chapter is different as it examines whether the concept of monetary sovereignty itself, as a dual concept that possesses not only positive but also increasingly important normative components, is subject to evolution. After a review of the conceptual foundations and underlying legal theories of money and monetary sovereignty, this opening chapter assesses the conceptual evolution of monetary sovereignty under the impact of contemporary constraints on its exercise. Finally, the chapter looks into the conceptual implications of the proposed new understanding of monetary sovereignty for the evaluation of the exercise of sovereign powers in the realm of money.Less
Large parts of the literature analyse monetary sovereignty as a static catalogue of state competences in monetary and financial matters. Approaching the concept of monetary sovereignty that way invites the undertaking of judgments over the degree to which a given state has preserved or lost its monetary sovereignty. The approach adopted in this chapter is different as it examines whether the concept of monetary sovereignty itself, as a dual concept that possesses not only positive but also increasingly important normative components, is subject to evolution. After a review of the conceptual foundations and underlying legal theories of money and monetary sovereignty, this opening chapter assesses the conceptual evolution of monetary sovereignty under the impact of contemporary constraints on its exercise. Finally, the chapter looks into the conceptual implications of the proposed new understanding of monetary sovereignty for the evaluation of the exercise of sovereign powers in the realm of money.
Philippe Contamine (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198202141
- eISBN:
- 9780191675188
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202141.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Military History
In the five hundred years covered by this volume there was scarcely a year which passed without either war or some open demonstration of hostility between the many sovereign powers which governed ...
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In the five hundred years covered by this volume there was scarcely a year which passed without either war or some open demonstration of hostility between the many sovereign powers which governed Europe. States and peoples lived under the shadow of war, were ceaselessly prompted to consider the possibility of war, and had to find ways of dealing with the consequences of war. This book focuses on the crucial role of war in the formation of state systems. It starts from the assumption that interstate rivalries and conflicts were at the heart not only of the demarcation of territories, but also of the ever-growing need to mobilize resources for warfare. Institutionalization was consequently highly dependent on such competition. It was for military reasons, and with military aims, that the state secured control of time and space, both at sea and on land.Less
In the five hundred years covered by this volume there was scarcely a year which passed without either war or some open demonstration of hostility between the many sovereign powers which governed Europe. States and peoples lived under the shadow of war, were ceaselessly prompted to consider the possibility of war, and had to find ways of dealing with the consequences of war. This book focuses on the crucial role of war in the formation of state systems. It starts from the assumption that interstate rivalries and conflicts were at the heart not only of the demarcation of territories, but also of the ever-growing need to mobilize resources for warfare. Institutionalization was consequently highly dependent on such competition. It was for military reasons, and with military aims, that the state secured control of time and space, both at sea and on land.
David Bates
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231158053
- eISBN:
- 9780231528665
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231158053.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
We fear that the growing threat of violent attack has upset the balance between existential concepts of political power, which emphasize security, and traditional notions of constitutional limits ...
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We fear that the growing threat of violent attack has upset the balance between existential concepts of political power, which emphasize security, and traditional notions of constitutional limits meant to protect civil liberties. We worry that constitutional states cannot, during a time of war, terror, and extreme crisis, maintain legality and preserve civil rights and freedoms. This book allays these concerns by revisiting the theoretical origins of the modern constitutional state, which, it argues, recognized and made room for tensions among law, war, and the social order. We traditionally associate the Enlightenment with the taming of absolutist sovereign power through the establishment of a legal state based on the rights of individuals. This book shows instead that Enlightenment thinkers conceived of political autonomy in a systematic, theoretical way. Focusing on the nature of foundational violence, war, and existential crises, eighteenth-century thinkers understood law and constitutional order not as constraints on political power but as the logical implication of that primordial force. The book reclaims the idea of law, warfare, and the social order as intertwining elements subject to complex historical development. It reviews the major canonical thinkers of constitutional theory (Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau) from the perspective of existential security and sovereign power, and demonstrates that Enlightenment thinkers understood the autonomous political sphere as a space of law protecting individuals according to their political status, not as mere members of a historically contingent social order.Less
We fear that the growing threat of violent attack has upset the balance between existential concepts of political power, which emphasize security, and traditional notions of constitutional limits meant to protect civil liberties. We worry that constitutional states cannot, during a time of war, terror, and extreme crisis, maintain legality and preserve civil rights and freedoms. This book allays these concerns by revisiting the theoretical origins of the modern constitutional state, which, it argues, recognized and made room for tensions among law, war, and the social order. We traditionally associate the Enlightenment with the taming of absolutist sovereign power through the establishment of a legal state based on the rights of individuals. This book shows instead that Enlightenment thinkers conceived of political autonomy in a systematic, theoretical way. Focusing on the nature of foundational violence, war, and existential crises, eighteenth-century thinkers understood law and constitutional order not as constraints on political power but as the logical implication of that primordial force. The book reclaims the idea of law, warfare, and the social order as intertwining elements subject to complex historical development. It reviews the major canonical thinkers of constitutional theory (Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau) from the perspective of existential security and sovereign power, and demonstrates that Enlightenment thinkers understood the autonomous political sphere as a space of law protecting individuals according to their political status, not as mere members of a historically contingent social order.
David William Bates
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231158053
- eISBN:
- 9780231528665
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231158053.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter draws on three exemplary seventeenth-century texts written in the natural-law tradition (by Grotius, Hobbes, and Pufendorf) to examine how these authors isolated the logical development ...
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This chapter draws on three exemplary seventeenth-century texts written in the natural-law tradition (by Grotius, Hobbes, and Pufendorf) to examine how these authors isolated the logical development of social and civil forms of organization, paying particularly close attention to their understanding of human bodies and human cognitive functioning. Both Grotius and Hobbes rely on very strict conceptions of the natural, rational human being. But on close inspection, their hugely influential accounts of political states and sovereign power are not, in fact, political at all. Only with the more complex portrait of human nature in Pufendorf do we begin to see how an independent concept of the political could ever emerge in an origin narrative that begins at the absolute beginning—in other words, with the individual human being alone in a pure state of nature. Thus, it is Pufendorf who exemplifies the shift to a whole new way of understanding the logic of human community, opening up the way to an Enlightenment conception of an autonomous political being.Less
This chapter draws on three exemplary seventeenth-century texts written in the natural-law tradition (by Grotius, Hobbes, and Pufendorf) to examine how these authors isolated the logical development of social and civil forms of organization, paying particularly close attention to their understanding of human bodies and human cognitive functioning. Both Grotius and Hobbes rely on very strict conceptions of the natural, rational human being. But on close inspection, their hugely influential accounts of political states and sovereign power are not, in fact, political at all. Only with the more complex portrait of human nature in Pufendorf do we begin to see how an independent concept of the political could ever emerge in an origin narrative that begins at the absolute beginning—in other words, with the individual human being alone in a pure state of nature. Thus, it is Pufendorf who exemplifies the shift to a whole new way of understanding the logic of human community, opening up the way to an Enlightenment conception of an autonomous political being.
Norberto Bobbio
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198763154
- eISBN:
- 9780191695209
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198763154.003.0023
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
In general legal and political theory, norm and power are two sides of the same coin. Of these two sides of the same coin, some theories of state emphasize the first, others the second. Indeed, ...
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In general legal and political theory, norm and power are two sides of the same coin. Of these two sides of the same coin, some theories of state emphasize the first, others the second. Indeed, general legal and political theories can be divided into two broad categories according to whether they affirm the primacy of power over norms, or of norms over power. Hans Kelsen's theory, which places at the apex of the system the basic norm, not sovereign power, considers the state (and any other organized power) from the standpoint of normativity. His theory can be interpreted as the most radical and throughgoing attempt to reduce the state to a legal or normative system, and to eliminate every form of dualism of law and state, truncating with one fell swoop the boring, sterile dispute over whether the state precedes the law or law the state. This chapter focuses on the problem of legal power as an instance of subjective law, with Kelsen comes of define only in his later works.Less
In general legal and political theory, norm and power are two sides of the same coin. Of these two sides of the same coin, some theories of state emphasize the first, others the second. Indeed, general legal and political theories can be divided into two broad categories according to whether they affirm the primacy of power over norms, or of norms over power. Hans Kelsen's theory, which places at the apex of the system the basic norm, not sovereign power, considers the state (and any other organized power) from the standpoint of normativity. His theory can be interpreted as the most radical and throughgoing attempt to reduce the state to a legal or normative system, and to eliminate every form of dualism of law and state, truncating with one fell swoop the boring, sterile dispute over whether the state precedes the law or law the state. This chapter focuses on the problem of legal power as an instance of subjective law, with Kelsen comes of define only in his later works.
Lauren B. Wilcox
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- December 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199384488
- eISBN:
- 9780199384501
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199384488.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics, Political Theory
Chapter 2 turns to Guantánamo Bay, one of the most controversial sites of violence in contemporary International Relations, to argue that the political dynamics of the practices of torture, hunger ...
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Chapter 2 turns to Guantánamo Bay, one of the most controversial sites of violence in contemporary International Relations, to argue that the political dynamics of the practices of torture, hunger striking, and force-feeding are not well explained in traditional IR theories. Rather, the violence of Guantánamo Bay reveals the ways in which the body is both the product of social and political forces as well as an agent of politics. Both hunger striking and force-feeding make use of the materiality of the body and its relationship to other bodies in a way that challenges liberal and biopolitical assumptions about bodies. Anxieties that constitute the paradox of sovereign power and biopower are manifested in the force-feeding of hunger-striking prisoners, an exercise of power that transforms prisoners from dangerous “enemy combatants” to a biopolitical subjectivity as recipients of care.Less
Chapter 2 turns to Guantánamo Bay, one of the most controversial sites of violence in contemporary International Relations, to argue that the political dynamics of the practices of torture, hunger striking, and force-feeding are not well explained in traditional IR theories. Rather, the violence of Guantánamo Bay reveals the ways in which the body is both the product of social and political forces as well as an agent of politics. Both hunger striking and force-feeding make use of the materiality of the body and its relationship to other bodies in a way that challenges liberal and biopolitical assumptions about bodies. Anxieties that constitute the paradox of sovereign power and biopower are manifested in the force-feeding of hunger-striking prisoners, an exercise of power that transforms prisoners from dangerous “enemy combatants” to a biopolitical subjectivity as recipients of care.
Jennifer Mitzen
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226060088
- eISBN:
- 9780226060255
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226060255.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
How states cooperate in the absence of a sovereign power is a perennial question in international relations. This book argues that global governance is more than just the cooperation of states under ...
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How states cooperate in the absence of a sovereign power is a perennial question in international relations. This book argues that global governance is more than just the cooperation of states under anarchy: it is the formation and maintenance of collective intentions, or joint commitments among states to address problems together. The key mechanism through which these intentions are sustained is face-to-face diplomacy, which keeps states' obligations to one another salient and helps them solve problems on a day-to-day basis. The book argues that the origins of this practice lie in the Concert of Europe, an informal agreement among five European states in the wake of the Napoleonic wars to reduce the possibility of recurrence, which first institutionalized the practice of jointly managing the balance of power. Through the Concert's many successes, the book shows that the words and actions of state leaders in public forums contributed to collective self-restraint and a commitment to problem solving—and at a time when communication was considerably more difficult than it is today. Despite the Concert's eventual breakdown, the practice it introduced—of face-to-face diplomacy as a mode of joint problem solving—survived, and is the basis of global governance today.Less
How states cooperate in the absence of a sovereign power is a perennial question in international relations. This book argues that global governance is more than just the cooperation of states under anarchy: it is the formation and maintenance of collective intentions, or joint commitments among states to address problems together. The key mechanism through which these intentions are sustained is face-to-face diplomacy, which keeps states' obligations to one another salient and helps them solve problems on a day-to-day basis. The book argues that the origins of this practice lie in the Concert of Europe, an informal agreement among five European states in the wake of the Napoleonic wars to reduce the possibility of recurrence, which first institutionalized the practice of jointly managing the balance of power. Through the Concert's many successes, the book shows that the words and actions of state leaders in public forums contributed to collective self-restraint and a commitment to problem solving—and at a time when communication was considerably more difficult than it is today. Despite the Concert's eventual breakdown, the practice it introduced—of face-to-face diplomacy as a mode of joint problem solving—survived, and is the basis of global governance today.
Sarbani Sen
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198071600
- eISBN:
- 9780199080045
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198071600.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
This chapter examines the significance of the Constituent Assembly as the culmination of the prior period of revolutionary struggle, and how its procedures for decision making were a creative ...
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This chapter examines the significance of the Constituent Assembly as the culmination of the prior period of revolutionary struggle, and how its procedures for decision making were a creative adaptation of earlier forms of leader-citizenry dialogue that emerged to mediate disagreements on higher law principles. It also looks at how the existence of minority opinions affected the Assembly's interpretation of the idea of popular sovereign power.Less
This chapter examines the significance of the Constituent Assembly as the culmination of the prior period of revolutionary struggle, and how its procedures for decision making were a creative adaptation of earlier forms of leader-citizenry dialogue that emerged to mediate disagreements on higher law principles. It also looks at how the existence of minority opinions affected the Assembly's interpretation of the idea of popular sovereign power.
