Key Thinkers- Sovereignty

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  • Created by: Megan K
  • Created on: 14-10-15 16:25

Lord Hailsham

"Elective Dictatorship"

concerning placement of Sovereingty. similar to state under a single dictatorship, when parliament is held y a large majority of the parliament, they have some superiiority when concerning legislation, but the supremacy is with the 'winning' electorate- who, at the next general election, may drop the vote.  

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Rousseau

Thought his contemporary absolutist monarchs should have their Sovereignty exchanged for that of ''General Will'' (ie in the hands of the general citizen. however he did reason to have it initially formulated by a legislator.

This notion of popular soveriengty is the basis of most modern democcractic theory

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Bodin

argued for a soveriegn that legislated, without individual attachment to rule of law. By this claim, the sovereign's constraint was by an existence of higher law- the wll of God, or Divine Authority. this Authority was what gave legitimacy of the ruler's soverieingty. 

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Hobbes

unlike Bodin, described Sovereignty as a matter of power, not Authority. In Leviathan he defined Soveriengty as a 'monopoly of coercive power' and advocated that it be vested in the hands of a single ruler. Although Hobbes preffredd a monarchial governement, there is a sesnse of acceptance of an expansion to an oligrchial group/democratic assembly, as long as it was unchallengeable.

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Austin

Argued that sovereingty did not lie with the people or the crown but with the 'monarch in parlliament', ie the first notion of Parlimentary Soveriengty. 

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John Stuart Mill

"Parliament can do anything, except chang a man into a woman'', ie Parliament enjoys unlimited legal power

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