Sovereignty Section B Machiavelli The Prince 1513 The

Sovereignty Section B

Machiavelli • The Prince (1513) • The Discourses of Livy )1513 -1519) • Modern state • Centralized authority and structure • Similar/predecessor to sovereignty theorists Jean Bodin (1529 -96) and Thomas Hobbes (1588 -1679)

Machiavelli • • • 1469 -1527 Florence Republic fell in 1512 Medici family Machiavelli imprisoned The Prince – experiences of government service The Discourses of Livy – ancient history Acheivement of order, stability and peace Republics or principalities Political leadership – character of the leader Livy – Roman history and institutional character of republican government Modern political thought

Modern political thought • • • • Medieval to modern State Supreme political authority Loyalty of all citizens Rejection of medieval ideas about superior authority of the church But this was prior to secular, centralized territorial state Renaissance Framgemented Florence Order, stability, peace and unity (objectives of the The Prince) Absolutist monarchy Virtu Use power ruthlessly As opposed to forces of tradition or custom

End justifies the means • Standing outside conventional morality • The end justifies the means • Fox and Lion – avoid traps and frighten wolves • But political authority should also be morally justifiable • Not just coercion

Hobbes • Leviathan (1651) • A sovereign • Centralized authority • English Civil War… • Hobbes (1588 -1679) • Royalist cause • Cromwell’s Commonwealth • Restoration of Stuart monarchy under Charles II in 1660 • Political order and stability

The case for Absolutist Government • Instead of divine right, Leviathan was influenced by Galileo. Geometric method. Deduced his case. • Human nature • Laws of nature • Internal sovereignty • Security and safety for the individual • Supreme authority • Covenant – voluntary agreement of the ruled • Social contract • Enforce the contract

The Power and Authority of the Sovereign • Absolute powers • • • Making and executing laws Making and preserving peace and declaring war Appointing ministers and magistrates Censorship Even allocation of property rights • Recognized right to rule - ‘dominion’ • Social contract – procuration of the safety of the people

Locke • Sovereignty as Trusteeship • Reaction against Hobbes • Fear of dictatorship rather than anarchy • Resist the sovereign? • Second Treatise of Government (1689) • Whig cause – institutions versus Catholic Stuart monarchy

Theory and biography • Checks and limits • Legislature • Locke’s connections to Whig movement and Earl of Shaftesbury versus Charles II and then James II • Political exile • Glorious Revolution of 1688 • William of Orange and Mary • Emphasis on individual natural rights • Consent • Limited government

• Sovereignty lies with the people • Loan powers to parliament • Trusteeship • State of nature • Law of nature – reason • Remedy for conflict is civil government • Not arbitrary rule • Contract • The commonwealth

• Separation of powers • Life, liberty, property • Overthrow government • Of the Dissolution of Government (Chapter 19) • Popular resistance • Civil society • American Revolution it influenced

Rousseau • Popular sovereignty • 1712 -1778) • Social contract theory • Community as a whole • State as a political association • Government as non-sovereign executor of decisions taken by sovereign community

Contemporary Debate • Geneva • Paris 1742 • Enlgightenment thinkers – Diderot and Voltaire Social Contract – 1762 General Will Individual freedom versus collective authority Died in 1778 French Revolution - 1789

• Also rejected Locke’s liberal-constitutionalist approach • Civil society and the state together • Rejection of reformism of Voltaire and Montesquieu • Radical transformation

The sovereign community • General will • Common good • Social contract • Surrender rights to community • Popular assembly • Republic • State when passive • Sovereign when active • Self interest (utility) and public interest (justice) together

• General will (versus particular will and partial will) • Small state • No partial society in the State • City-state notion • Decentralized versus centralized early modern European states such as England France • Equality • Some property • No representative assembly • Direct participation • An executive to execute the laws

• American and French Revolutions • Robespierre • Frech Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1791) • Thomas Paine, but ‘men are born free…’ is Rousseau

Contemporary debates • Globalization • Contested sovereignty • ‘end of sovereignty’ • European integration • Newman – sovereignty obscures and is ‘an unhelpful doctrine’ • But others say sovereignty is more resilient than globalization and interdependence suggests • • International recognition and constitutional independence (Alan James) Stabilizing functions within the international order National self determination – leads to democracy James – ‘the maligned and much-misunderstood concept’ of sovereignty