Sovereignty as exchange of political property rights

Alexander Salter

Public Choice, 2015, vol. 165, issue 1, 79-96

Abstract: I develop a positive theory of sovereignty that is rooted in political exchange. The key concept I use to characterize sovereignty is self-enforcing exchange of political rights. I conclude that a sovereign is an individual or body party to political exchange that does not rest on third-party enforcement. Importantly, sovereignty is an emergent phenomenon, defined in the process of bargains between holders of political power. I describe how political bargains within and across polities influences the distribution of political rights characterized by sovereignty, and I conclude by showing how my conception of sovereignty is compatible with theoretical understanding, and practical existence, of polycentric governance. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Keywords: Anarchy; Catallaxy; Constitutions; Politics as exchange; Polycentricity; Sovereignty; B53; H1; H77; P5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11127-015-0293-4

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