We explain what sovereignty is, its history and its relationship with power. In addition, the characteristics of each type of sovereignty.
What is sovereignty?
In Political Sciences Y international right, sovereignty is understood as the sum of the can political, supreme and unlimited, which has an independent State and which gives it the necessary authority to autonomously make its own decisions at all levels. This authority traditionally resides in the nation, the town or the Condition itself, and is contained in the National Constitution.
The term sovereignty comes from the Latin voice superanus, and from the French voice souveraineté, originally conceived as "supreme power." It was a useful term in the transition from feudalism to the nationalism, in the sixteenth century, to justify the imposition of the power of the French king over the feudal lords rebels.
Its contemporary meaning comes from the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-679), in whose work it is stated that some person or group of people should, within each State, hold absolute power to declare the law. Dividing this power, according to the philosopher, would be equivalent to dividing the State.
This should not be construed today as a plea in favor of the authoritarianism or the absolutism typical of the Old Monarchical Regime. On the contrary, as the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) explained when speaking of the social contract, every form of State consists in the transfer of the power of self-determination of the peoples to their government.
In this way, governments exercise that power to provide well-being to the population, as well as common protection. Following this principle, the French Constitution of 1793 established that "sovereignty resides in the people."
Similarly, sovereign is understood to be any State empowered to make its own decisions for itself, without being subordinate to any other for colonial or dependency reasons. This implies that no one can make decisions for a sovereign State regarding its internal aspects.
Types of sovereignty
One can speak of types of sovereignty, depending on the aspect of political power in question, for example:
- Political sovereignty. That which has to do with the internal political organization of a State, which is determined by the rules of its Constitution.
- Economic or financial sovereignty. When it refers to the determination of the economic rules of the system of a nation or country, or to the management of its economic assets and the administration of its finances.
- Food sovereignty. Referring to the capacity of a State to produce its own food and feed its people without relying on third parties.
- Technological sovereignty. It is the one that has to do with the capacity of a State to produce or manage the technology necessary for its operations without requiring third parties.
- Military sovereignty. Referring to the management of the armed forces of a nation and the defense of its limits territorial.