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  The Sovereign State System

Sovereignty: Sovereignty is the central organizing principle of states which has two aspects:

  Sovereignty is in fact a relatively recent innovation connected to the emergence

of nation-state as the primary unit of political organization.

 

A number of contemporary issues have placed increasing limits on the exercise

of sovereign authority.

Historical Development: Through the Middle Ages, alternative feudal arrangements governed

Europe and city-states lasted up until the modern period. The development of sovereign states

culminated in Europe at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. This agreement essentially allowed

the ruler to determine the region within his/her borders, but it also represents the internal and

external aspects of sovereignty. As Europe colonized much of the rest of the world from the

15th

 to the 19th

 centuries, the state system spread around the globe. Much of international law,

at least until World War II, was designed to reinforce sovereignty.

One of the milestone treaties that shaped/ reshaped European politics and proved to be a

landmark in European political philosophy, was the Treaty of Westphalia of 1948. It was signed

in the backdrop of 30 years of war in Europe signifying a complicated context but epitomized

religious wars within the Holy Roman Empire. This Treaty is believed to have initiated a new

system of political order called the “Westphalian system”. This concept was based on

“sovereign states” governed by a sovereign. 

The principles of sovereignty and equality in the Westphalian way became the

Constitution of the new system in Europe. At its core, sovereignty is taken to mean the

possession of absolute authority within a bounded territorial space. There is essentially twodimensions of sovereignty:

1.  Internal Sovereignty: Internally a government is a fixed authority with a settled

population that possesses monopoly on the use of force. It is the supreme authority

within its territory.

2. 

External Sovereignty: Externally, sovereignty allows a state entry into the society of

states. Recognition on the part of other states helps to ensure territorial integrity and its

participation in diplomacy and international organizations on an equal footing with

other states.

A sovereign state is thus represented by one centralized government that has supremeindependent authority over a geographic area. International Law defines sovereign state as

having:

1.  Permanent population;

2.  Defined territory

3.  One government

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4.  Capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states.

A number of contemporary issues have placed increasing limits on the exercise of

sovereign authority. Sovereignty, according to one view now envisions states and non-state

actors as engaged in a continual process of renegotiating the nature of sovereignty. Today, asper their view sovereignty is essentially based on borders as it has been circumscribed by

international organizations and rules-based procedures.

Nation: The nation is a cultural group residing within a territory of the political state. A large

group of people are considered a nation if

  They are permanent residents of a defined territory

  They exhibit some form of government

  They have common culture

  They have declared themselves to be and are considered to be sovereign.

A group becomes a nation, the older loyalties to family or tribe must be subordinated to

the new political order, and a sense of common literature, history and a common future

development. They share a real or imagined common history, culture, language or ethnic origin.

Political nation concept developed with the introduction of the concept of citizens and as

sovereignty passed from monarch to citizens. The criteria was based on nationalism, individual

liberty and equality, largely ignoring ethical or cultural considerations.

State: States are independent units that claim exclusive jurisdiction over defined territories and

over all the people and activities within them.

Nation-State: Nation-state is a certain form of state that derives its political legitimacy from

serving as a sovereign entity for a nation as a sovereign territorial unit. The state is a

geopolitical and political entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity. The term nation-

state implies that the two geographically coincide. This distinguishes nation-state from other

types of state. The nation-state hence differs from ‘state’ or ‘nation’ for the following important

reasons:

1.  A nation refers only to a socio-cultural entity (culture, languages)

2.  The state refers to a legal political entity.

The modern nation-state refers to a single or multiple nationalities joined together in a

formal political union. The nation-state determines an official language (s), a system of law,

uses a bureaucracy to order elements of society and fosters loyalties to abstract entities

(Canada, Belgium). In recent years, the nation-state’s claim to absolute sovereignty within its

borders has been challenged. A global political system based on international agreements and

supra-national blocs has characterized the post- war era (European Union for example).

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Moreover non-state actors, international corporations and Non-governmental Organizations

are also eroding the economic and political power of nation-state.

Anyhow, there are four characteristics of nation-state:

  It should have a government;

 

It should enjoy sovereignty;

  It should have a population; and

  It should have a territory.

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