Sovereignty

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

Developments in intergovernmental relations: towards multi-level governance

Abstract: This issue of Policy & Politics features a series of articles addressing recent developments in intergovernmental relationships in the advanced Western democracies. There is today, we believe, sufficient uniformity in these developments across different jurisidictions to allow a discussion on the causes, mechanisms and consequences of a new or emerging type of relationship between institutions at different levels. While it is also true that intergovernmental relationships in each individual country are developing to some extent according to the trajectory of institutional relationships which is typical of that national context, we suggest that the triggering mechanisms have been, on the whole, fairly similar across the western world. What we are thus witnessing is a gradual institutional – and inter-institutional – change reflecting both similar problems facing countries in different parts of the world and, at the same time, the trajectory of institutional change in each national context. The emergence of multi-level governance challenges much of our traditional understanding of how the state operates, what determines its capacities, what its contingencies are, and ultimately of the organisation of democratic and accountable government. Acknowledging the risk of idealising times past in order to exaggerate changes over time, we could say that we are moving from a model of the state in a liberal– democratic perspective towards a state model characterised by complex patterns of contingencies and dependencies on external actors (Pierre, 2000). Political power and institutional capability is less and less derived from formal constitutional powers accorded the state but more from a capacity to wield and coordinate resources from public and private actors and interests. Put slightly differently, we have been witnessing a development from a ‘command and control’ type of state towards an ‘enabling’ state, a model in which the state is not proactively governing society but is more concerned with defining objectives and mustering resources from a wide variety of sources to pursue those goals (Pierre and Peters, 2000). These are obviously changes and developments which are of considerable magnitude and significance. The gradual shift from a government towards a governance perspective reflects the new role of the state which has become typical of western politics in the past decade or so. Multi-level governance is to some extent merely a logical extension of these developments. However, it also signals a growing awareness among elected officials of the decreasing meaningfulness of speaking about sovereignty and autonomy in a political and economic order increasingly characterised by international political, economic and administrative coordination, economic global isation and growing subnational assertiveness vis-a-vis the state in many countries. Multi-level governance is also manifested in a growing number of exchanges between subnational and transnational institutions, seemingly bypassing the state (see, for example, Beauregard and Pierre, 2000). The remainder of this introduction is organised as follows. First, we will discuss in closer detail the definition and meaning of the concept of multi-level governance and what might explain the emergence of such governance. Following that we will assess the impact of multilevel governance on traditional models of institut ional relationships and highligh t the strengths and weaknesses of such governance as compared to more traditional, hierarchical models of government. In the closing section of the introduction we briefly present the other articles in this issue.

"Constructing Europe? The Evolution of French, British, and German Nation-State Identities"

Abstract: This article tackles the following puzzle. Why is it that we cannot observe much Europeanization of 'Anglo-Saxon exceptionalism' over the past fifty years, while 'Germanness' has spelt European since the end of the 1950s and 'French exceptionalism', at least recently, also comes in European colours? We argue that a combination of three factors accounts for this variation in the extent to which nation state identities have become European. The first condition is that any new idea about political order, in order to be considered legitimate, must resonate with core elements of older visions of the political order such as 'state-centred republicanism' in France, 'parliamentary democracy and external sovereignty' in Great Britain, and 'federalism, democracy and social market economy' in Germany. These older understandings of political order therefore delimit the degree to which 'Europe' can be incorporated in given nation state identities. The second condition is that new visions about political order circulat...

Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400-1900

Abstract: Acknowledgements 1. Legal regimes and colonial cultures 2. Law in diaspora: the legal regime of the Atlantic world 3. Order out of trouble: jurisdictional tensions in Catholic and Islamic empires 4. A place for the state: legal pluralism as a colonial project in Bengal and West Africa 5. Subjects and witnesses: cultural and legal hierarchies in the Cape Colony and New South Wales 6. Constructing sovereignty: extra-territoriality in the Oriental Republic of Uruguay 7. Culture and the rule(s) of law Bibliography Index.

The Democratic Advantage: Institutional Foundations of Financial Power in International Competition

Abstract: Despite their presumed liabilities, institutions associated with democracy serve as a source of power in prolonged international competition by increasing the financial resources that states can bring to bear. The theory of sovereign debt suggests that a state's ability to raise money through public borrowing is enhanced when debtholders have mechanisms for sanctioning state leaders in the event of default. Institutions associated with liberal government provide such mechanisms. All other things being equal, states that possess these institutions enjoy superior access to credit and lower interest rates than do states in which the sovereign has more discretion to default unilaterally. Liberal states can not only raise more money from a given economic base but can also pursue tax-smoothing policies that minimize economic distortions. The ability to finance competition in a manner that is consistent with long-term economic growth generates a significant advantage in prolonged rivalries. These claims are explored by analyzing the Anglo-French rivalry (1688–1815) and the Cold War.

If Mayors Ruled the World: Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities

Abstract: Can cities solve the biggest problems of the twenty-first century better than nations? Is the city democracy's best hope? In the face of the most perilous challenges of our time-climate change, terrorism, poverty, and trafficking of drugs, guns, and people-the nations of the world seem paralyzed. The problems are too big, too interdependent, too divisive for the nation-state. Is the nation-state, once democracy's best hope, today democratically dysfunctional? Obsolete? The answer, says Benjamin Barber in this highly provocative and original book, is yes. Cities and the mayors who run them can do and are doing a better job. Barber cites the unique qualities cities worldwide share: pragmatism, civic trust, participation, indifference to borders and sovereignty, and a democratic penchant for networking, creativity, innovation, and cooperation. He demonstrates how city mayors, singly and jointly, are responding to transnational problems more effectively than nation-states mired in ideological infighting and sovereign rivalries. Featuring profiles of a dozen mayors around the world-courageous, eccentric, or both at once-If Mayors Ruled the World presents a compelling new vision of governance for the coming century. Barber makes a persuasive case that the city is democracy's best hope in a globalizing world, and great mayors are already proving that this is so.