scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Topic

Sovereignty

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


Papers
More filters
Book
01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: This book aims to provide a history of empire from the perspective of a 19th Century perspective, with a focus on the conflicts of the 18th Century.
Abstract: Acknowledgments ix Introduction The Labyrinth of Sovereignty 1 Chapter 1: Empires That Bleed 13 Chapter 2: Capitalism and Slavery on Imperial Hinterlands 56 Chapter 3: Between War and Peace 101 Chapter 4: The Wealth of Empires 141 Chapter 5: Spanish Secessions 175 Chapter 6: Brazilian Counterpoints 220 Chapter 7: Dissolutions of the Spanish Atlantic 258 Chapter 8: Crossing the Rubicon 308 Chapter 9: Revolution and Sovereignty 344 Afterword 394 Index 399

132 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the absence of any developed theory to account for these observations, the ability of officials independently to formulate and execute policy has acquired the label state autonomy as mentioned in this paper, which implies that the officials who constitute the state not only have preferences which are more than simple reflections of the preferences of powerful societal groups, but also have the capacity, in terms of organizational cohesion, expertise, and extractive and coercive ability, to carry out decisions based on their preferences.
Abstract: It no longer seems controversial to say that governments can sometimes and do sometimes act to carry out the autonomous preferences of officials. Analysts have observed that government leaders at times initiate major policy shifts without regard for the demands of important political and economic groups, that they follow their own economic ideologies, and that they build coalitions to support their preferred policies and ideologies.' In the absence of any developed theory to account for these observations, the ability of officials independently to formulate and execute policy has acquired the label state autonomy. Discussions of the causes of state autonomy have tended to focus on macro-level conditions that might lead officials to form independent preferences or that reduce the ability of societal groups to exert influence. Authors writing from the dependency perspective, for example, link the emergence of an autonomous state to the failure of the national bourgeoisie to achieve hegemony.2 Theda Skocpol and Ellen Kay Trimberger argue that states will act autonomously in order to mobilize national defense against external military threats when traditional rulers have failed to do so.3 The shortcoming of these macro-level explanations is that they describe virtually all developing countries. The hegemonic bourgeoisie has always been a rare and fragile creature; it has not so far found a congenial niche anywhere in the contemporary developing world. Scarcely any part of the earth has escaped the international threats of colonialism, war, and economic imperialism during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and few traditional rulers have proved able to mount an effective defense. Thus, if the macro-level speculations about the causes of state autonomy are correct, virtually all states in developing countries should be autonomous. These theories thus fail to explain the vastly differing degrees of autonomy actually observed in developing countries. Nevertheless, they offer a starting point for an explanation. In the face of persistent military and economic threats to sovereignty and well-being, elites committed to change-that is, elites who have preferences at variance with the interests of groups favored by the status quo-do come to power with some frequency in developing countries, as the macrolevel theories would predict. Autonomous actions by these elites, however, occur only infrequently because the efforts of such elites to act on their own preferences often fail. If elites with independent preferences reach power but often fail in their attempts to implement their preferences, explanations of state autonomy need to give some attention to the development of the capacity to carry out these preferences. "State" autonomy implies that the officials who constitute the state not only have preferences which are more than simple reflections of the preferences of powerful societal groups, but also that they have the capacity, in terms of organizational cohesion, expertise, and extractive and coercive ability, to carry out decisions based on their preferences. Such capacity may depend either on characteristics of the organizations to which officials belong or on attributes of the government itself. In countries governed by Communist parties

132 citations

Book
Jane Landers1
01 May 1999
TL;DR: Landers as discussed by the authors provides a vital counterweight to the better-known dynamics of the Anglo slave South, where the Spanish Crown afforded sanctuary to runaway slaves, making the territory a prime destination for blacks fleeing Anglo plantations, while Castilian law (grounded in Roman law) provided many avenues out of slavery.
Abstract: The first extensive study of the African American community under colonial Spanish rule, "Black Society in Spanish Florida" provides a vital counterweight to the better-known dynamics of the Anglo slave South. Jane Landers draws on a wealth of untapped primary sources, opening a new vista on the black experience in America and enriching our understanding of the powerful links between race relations and cultural custom. Blacks under Spanish rule in Florida lived not in cotton rows or tobacco patches but in a more complex and international world that linked the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, and a powerful and diverse Indian hinterland. Here the Spanish Crown afforded sanctuary to runaway slaves, making the territory a prime destination for blacks fleeing Anglo plantations, while Castilian law (grounded in Roman law) provided many avenues out of slavery, which it deemed an unnatural condition. European-African unions were common and accepted in Florida, with families of African descent developing important community connections through marriage, concubinage, and godparent choices. Assisted by the corporate nature of Spanish society, Spain's medieval tradition of integration and assimilation, and the almost constant threat to Spanish sovereignty in Florida, multiple generations of Africans leveraged linguistic, military, diplomatic, and artisanal skills into citizenship and property rights. In this remote Spanish outpost, where they could become homesteaders, property owners, and entrepreneurs, blacks enjoyed more legal and social protection than they would again until almost two hundred years of Anglo history had passed.

132 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The tension between the protection of human rights and the demands of state sovereignty is reflected in the debate on whether state officials should be held responsible in external fora for international crimes committed while in office as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The tension between the protection of human rights and the demands of state sovereignty is reflected in the debate on whether state officials should be held responsible in external fora for international crimes committed while in office. This debate involves the interplay between two branches of international law. Firstly, there is the well-established law according immunities to the state and its agents from the jurisdiction of other states (state and diplomatic immunities). This law proceeds from notions of sovereign equality and is aimed at ensuring that states do not unduly interfere with other states and their agents. On the other hand, there are those newer principles of international law that are based on humanitarian values and define certain types of conduct as crimes under international law (international criminal law). One of the challenges in this latter area has been to develop international and national mechanisms by which individuals who commit these crimes may be held responsible. Since states often fail to institute domestic prosecution of their own officials and agents alleged to have committed international crimes, renewed attention has been paid to the possibility of subjecting state agents to prosecution in foreign domestic courts or in international courts. For such prosecution in foreign domestic courts to take place, it will usually have to be shown (1) that those courts have jurisdiction over crimes committed abroad by foreigners against foreigners (i.e..universalorquasi-universal jurisdiction),and (2) that such jurisdiction extends to state agents (i.e., that international law immunities are unavailable). Recent years have seen a significant increase in attempts to institute prosecutions for alleged international crimes in the national courts of states other than that where the acts occurred. However, it has not proved easy to establish the two propositions identified above. Indeed, it has become apparent that the views that states possess universal jurisdiction over international crimes committed abroad and that incumbent and former state officials are subject to foreign domestic prosecution for such crimes are by no means universally held.

132 citations


Network Information
Related Topics (5)
Politics
263.7K papers, 5.3M citations
91% related
Democracy
108.6K papers, 2.3M citations
90% related
Globalization
81.8K papers, 1.7M citations
87% related
Human rights
98.9K papers, 1.1M citations
86% related
Ideology
54.2K papers, 1.1M citations
83% related
Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20241
20231,775
20223,691
2021802
20201,086
20191,042