Category: Concept Of Sovereignty Challenged

Hobbes, Austin and others talk about sovereign authority of the State. Underlying principle in this is that power is an important ingredient of the State. However, MacIver holds that power in itself has no meaning for the State unless it is lawful. He says, ‘in the last resort force can be entrusted to the State,… Continue reading End of the State and Basis of Sovereignty

MacIver declares that conception of unlimited sovereignty is ‘dangerously false’. He rejects the concept of legal sovereignty as propounded by Austin. The monist concept of sovereignty derives it force from the formulation that sovereign is the source of all law and is omnipotent. Since sovereignty is characteristic of the state, it is also all-powerful. We… Continue reading Authority of Law and its Social Basis

From this primacy of society and social needs of human beings, flows another logical argument that supports the pluralist’s view. MacIver asserted that social forms like families or churches or clubs, owe neither their origin nor their sustenance to the State. For him, associations in society serve different interests of human beings and that include… Continue reading State and Other Associations in Society: Is the State First Among the Equals?

The general tendency of MacIver’s views on state-society relationship suggests that he is critical of the idealist political thinkers like Plato, Rousseau, Hegel, Bosanquet, who do not differentiate between the two. In his The Modern State, MacIver terms as ‘grossest of all confusions’ to identify the social with the political.49 For MacIver, society is prior to the… Continue reading Society and the State: Primacy of the Social Over the Political

Ideas and formulations of Gierke and Maitland (doctrine of real personality), William James (multi-verse and plurality of ideas), Durkheim and Boncour (professional and occupational associations), Bentley (interest groups) have in one way or the other influenced the pluralist criticism of the monist theory of sovereignty. A brief survey of the views and writings of the exponents of political pluralism may help us understand… Continue reading Views of exponents of political pluralism

From our survey of the underlying principles of political pluralism, we can identify various basis on which the pluralists have attacked and criticized the theory of sovereignty in general and the monist theory of sovereignty in particular. These include historical, social, economic, legal, political, philosophical and international bases.21 Historical basis: Pluralism finds a parallel in the… Continue reading Basis of pluralism

Pluralists maintain that as far as international law is concerned, state is not legally unlimited in its external relations to other states. Further, internationalism and international organizations having allegiance reaching beyond the limits of the State are also discernable. Hugo Krabbe (The Modern Idea of the State) tends to extend his idea ot law as outcome of the… Continue reading International law and internationalism limits sovereignty

As a logical fallout of their argument for existence of multiple interests in society, pluralist thinkers advocate decentralization of authority. Developments in the field of political federalism add yet another dimension in the pluralistic arguments for federal nature of authority. Writers like Sidney and Beatrice Webb, G. D. H. Cole and H. J. Laski have… Continue reading Prominence to political federalism and decentralization of authority

Despite putting limitations on sovereignty, pluralists assign the State the role of a thereby required to serve the purpose of securing common interest by taking cognizance of interests of all the groups and associations. In the process of public service or social service, the State assumes the role of a coordinator and facilitator of common… Continue reading State as coordinator of interests in society

Political pluralism views the State not in terms of power or sovereignty but essentially in terms of purpose and the end it serves or should serve according to R. M. MacIver, Leon Duguit and Hugo Krabbe. According to MacIver, service is the end of the state and power is its means. Since the service of… Continue reading Characteristic of the State: Not power or sovereignty but the purpose or end it serves