world federalist association
updates sovereignty definition

Sovereignty:
1: the authority to form and change the government of a state or other political unit and to govern it in internal and external affairs, limited by generally accepted moral principles, by the civil rights of people, by customary international law, and by applicable international treaties (including the Charter of the United Nations).
2-a: in unitary authoritarian states and empires, the powers asserted by the rulers over their subject people.
b: in democratic unitary states or other self-governing political units, the legitimate authority of the citizens, who may exercise their powers to govern (i) directly, as in small units or, more usually (ii) indirectly, by delegating and entrusting powers to their representaives and to officials of their governments in accord with a constitution.
c: in democratic federal systems, the legitimate authority of the citizens, who delegate, entrust and distribute powers among the governments of the central union and the member political units in accord with a federal constitution.

Background
The U.S. Declaration of Independence proclaims:
"...governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...
"...it is the right of the people to alter or abolish [a destructive government] and to institute new government..."

At the Federal Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, the Virginia Resolutions were used as the working paper from which the Constitution was to be drafted. They originated in a letter of 8 April from James Madison to Governor Randolph, which was perhaps "the earliest [sketch] of a Constitutional Govt for the Union to be sanctioned by the people of the States, acting in their original and sovereign character." During the convention George Mason, James Wilson and Madison spoke in favor of the 4th resolution, namely that what became the House of Representatives should be elected by the people, not by state legislatures. And, in the face of other members' preference that the Constitution should be ratified by the state legislatures, Madison insisted that "the new Constitution should be ratified in the most unexceptionable form, and by the supreme authority of the people themselves."

Two years later, in 1789, the French promulgated the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, among which rights were:
"The law is an expression of the will of the community. All citizens have a right to play a role, either personally, or by their representatives, in its formation."
And in 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed by the U.N. General Assembly. Its Article 21 states:
"(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives...
"(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government..."

Despite the fact that it's been over 200 years since the Enlightenment, when the American Founding Fathers declared that the people are the source of authority to govern, two misconceptions still prevail in much of the United States and elsewhere in the world. First, following the tradition of absolute monarchs, despots camouflage their misdeeds by asserting their sovereignty while claiming to represent the state (a la Louis XIV's l'etat c'est moi). Secondly, not just the man in the street, but also those in political, bureaucratic, and academic circles, ignoring the political roots of the United States where the people were recognized as sovereign, mythologize sovereignty as something possessed by a country or independent state. This misconception has led to an alarmist concern for "loss of sovereignty" by one's country if the people decide to participate in, and benefit from a larger federal body like the European Union.

WFA set up a Sovereignty Task Force to overcome these misconceptions and to produce a definition of sovereignty appropriate to the world of today and the 21st Century. Its draft of the above text was approved on 29 March 1998 by the WFA Board of Directors.

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