Sovereignty

About: Sovereignty is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 25909 publications have been published within this topic receiving 410148 citations.

The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire

Abstract: (1994). The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. History: Reviews of New Books: Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 184-185.

Britain in Decline: Economic Policy, Political Strategy and the British State

Abstract: Part 1 Decline: the hundred years decline Part 2 History: the world island the unfinished revolution Part 3 Strategy: managing social democracy the sovereign market the enterprise state decline recovery?

National Politics as International Process: The Case of Anti-Female-Genital-Cutting Laws

Abstract: Looking at power struggles primarily within national boundaries reifies the nation-state and misses larger issues of control in the international system. Using the example of female genital cutting (FGC), we consider the relative importance of local constituencies versus international normative influence in treating national policies. We find that the occurrence of anti-FGC legislation in countries where many individuals support the procedure, the timing and character of national legal action directed against FGC, and the uniformity of political action all lend weight to the importance of international norms. At the national level, we find (1) reform is often a top-down process in which national laws are developed to change rather than reflect local attitudes, and (2) African states tend to work around local communities by adopting bureaucratic policies to combat FGC (Western countries, in contrast, tend to adopt formal laws). At the international level, our findings suggest (1) the structural position of international actors influences whether they deploy assimilative or coercive reform strategies, (2) contradictions among international ideals limits Western hegemony, and (3) international ideals can simultaneously empower (by offering options) and disempower (by disengaging states from local constituencies) local individuals. Social science literature tends to assume a link between national policies and local civil societies. Although that model may represent Western nations reasonably well, its extension to African nations and other countries in the Southern Hemisphere is often problematic.1 Such analyses miss an important piece of the picture: the international context of national action. Increasingly, calls for democratic process coincide with calls for particular political outcomes, which may go against local majority sentiments. Examining the evolution of laws from power struggles within countries reifies the nation-state and misses larger issues of control in the international system. An examination of the practice and policies of female genital cutting (FGC)2 provides an interesting case to explore the importance of international culture in creating national policies.3 FGC has generated many debates precisely because the issue juxtaposes the ideals of sovereign autonomy and local representation against an international definition of human rights. Due to the resulting moral quandary, national laws relating to the procedure are highly controversial. In this article, we examine why countries adopt anti-FGC legislation. Assuming that laws reflect national culture and material conditions, one might expect female genital cutting to be legally condoned in countries where the practice is prevalent (see Kidder 1984:36-57). Instead, laws in these countries are exclusively directed at banning female genital cutting. Laws banning female genital cutting are also common in countries in which the practice is very rare (the United States, Great Britain, etc.). Rather than viewing each law as the end point of a national political struggle, we consider all anti-FGC laws as part of an international process.4 We elaborate this process, exploring the strategies used by international actors to eradicate female genital cutting. We adopt the perspective that laws are significant because of the transcendent principles outside the means-end relationship for which they stand (see Boyle & Meyer 1998; Gusfield 1963; 1986:166; Burke 1945; see also Fine 1993). Law is a key ingredient in the social construction of reality. For example, African countries' anti-FGC policies bolster the perception of an international consensus to eradicate female genital cutting (cf. Edelman et al. 1999) and are viewed as an invitation by international activists to work within countries to eradicate the practice (see El Dareer 1982:96). In this way, laws have real consequences in fueling eradication efforts, regardless of whether local individuals are actually prosecuted under them. …

The origins, development, and possible decline of the modern state

Abstract: ▪ Abstract Some contemporary states seem subject to aggregational dynamics that bring them together in larger regional associations, whereas others fall prey to centrifugal forces that pull them apart. The autonomy of all states has been drawn into question by the globalization of trade and finance. For these reasons, scholars have returned to examining the historical origins and development of the modern state in the hope that this may shed light on its future, and on the process through which new logics of organization may be emerging that might displace the state. This essay discusses various accounts of the emergence and development of the modern state, comparing security, economic, and institutionalist approaches. It then links these approaches to insights regarding contemporary statehood. Arguments regarding the autonomy of the state must be distinguished from discussions of territorial sovereignty as a constitutive principle of international relations. The latter, juridical notion of sovereignty as...