Political Science 1020E Chapter Notes -Body Politic, Wield

• School: Western University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: Political Science 1020E
• Professor: Bruce Morrison

Document Summary

Authority the right to command and correlatively, the right to be obeyed. Sovereignty is a matter of right or legitimacy, not one of mere power. Legitimacy means a sort of consensually conferred authoritative sanction, whether this be natural law, a divine mandate or international law. Territoriality principle that defines the set of people who live under the holder of sovereignty, or the supreme authority. The parallel between sovereignty and private property is the modern principle based on territoriality. Territoriality often does not succeed in defining membership so as to correspond with the identity of a people or nation. Diversity can be organized somewhat through three dimensions along which forms of sovereignty vary: the holders of sovereignty, the absolute or non-absolute character of sovereignty; and the configuration of the internal and external dimensions of sovereignty. Sovereign is bound by divine and natural law. Sovereignty can be absolute or non-absolute, absoluteness is a matter of the scope of authority.