State and Sovereignty

Bodin (Jean, 1576) definition, sovereignty may be defines absolute powers to command in a specific state. It is the quality and standard of having complete and independent authority over a particular region or a specific geographical area. The territory must be certain and has clear boundaries or demarcations (Biersteke & Weber, 1996). Thus in simple terms, it can denote the authority, power and mandate to make laws, enforce the laws and rule politically. There has never been a full and all encompassing definition legal definition. According to earliest scholars such as Socrates and Thomas Hobbes linked sovereignty to moral imperative and an entity to exercise it (Boucher, 1994).

According to the concept of political theory, sovereignty encompasses authority, especially in making decisions of a state and maintaining law and order (Maritain, 1951). This concept relates to international law and political science (Luther, 1967). It is also related to state and government and the idea of independence and democracy.

The idea of state has thus changed with the level of enhancement in governance and independence (Benjamin, 1913-1926). In ancient the concept of sovereignty was highly linked to the powers and ability to guarantee protection of interests by a sovereign to its subjects. And as far as this concept was concerned, it was only supposed to act in the best interest of the people failure of which it could not be regarded a s a state which is sovereign (Bateman, 2011).

The state is not able to stand alone without the concept of sovereignty (Wheaton, 1836). Thus the superiority of the state to other entities is because it is a sovereign. Because of this close connection with sovereignty that modern theories of state were perfected.

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...n in a particular state. The sovereign, according to Austin may be a person or a body and is a legal body. According to Austin, in each state there is an entity to which many people in a state show obedience and compliance and such an authority is unlimited, indivisible and absolute. In his own words, “If a determinate human superior not in the habit of obedience to a like superior receives habitual obedience from the bulk of a given society, that determinate superior is sovereign in that society and that society (including the superior) is a society political and independent.” (Austin, 1832)

We see that the Monistic theory highly concentrates on the law in defining a sovereign. The law is considered as a set of commands which flow from a superior to an inferior.

This theory has main tenets:

1. Is that the sovereign powers are very crucial in many political society