LEIJSSENAAR, BAS
Sovereignty in premodern times evoked the dynastic figure of the ´sovereign´ or territorial monarch. In modern times, it became a more abstract idea, referring to the power of the state, later of the people or ´the popular sovereign´ as articulated and refined through constitutional arrangements. Today these inherited understandings of sovereignty confront various new challenges, including those of globalization, privatization of power, and the rise of sub-state nationalism. An examination of key historical writers and trends from the seventeenth century onwards, including Hobbes, Bodin, Constant, Rousseau and Schmitt, brings out these developments and challenges. Sovereignty remains a malleable and ´active´ feature of the global configuration of power. Will sovereignty become a redundant concept over time, or will it remain a key part of the grammar of modern politics?
