Browsing by Subject "kansainväliset instituutiot"

This thesis is motivated by what some would consider as the erosion, or demise, of nation-state sovereignty today. There is a growing consensus that the nature of sovereignty has changed in the recent decades, as the state as the centrepiece of power and authority is being increasingly affected by forces of globalization and the proliferation of international organizations and institutions. However, the approaches adopted by theorists to confront this perceived crisis of sovereignty seem to be largely divided between those aiming to defend some notion of nation-sate sovereignty, and those aiming to discard it, transform it, migrate or divide it. There is thus an urgent need to re-examine and re-think the concept of sovereignty, and its place and status in today’s politics and political theory. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to this project through a philosophical analysis of the concept of sovereignty, and the various approaches and conceptualizations present in the modern sovereignty discourse. Especially, the thesis will explore a possibility of re-configuring sovereignty towards a conceptualization that enables it to be dispersed, shared or transferred away from the nation-state to other political units. One such re-configuration is suggested by Thomas Pogge, who promotes a cosmopolitan institutional reform through a vertical dispersal of sovereignty, or a process of decentralization and centralization downwards to local, and upwards to global level - his idea will be critically assessed in detail. The key modern sources adopted in this thesis include: Jacques Maritain’s 'The Concept of Sovereignty' (1950); Literature and Evil by George Bataille (1973); Rogues: Two Essays on Reason by Jacques Derrida (2005); 'Democracy, Demography and Sovereignty' by Seyla Benhabib (2008); World Poverty and Human Rights by Thomas Pogge (2008); Walled States, Waning Sovereignty by Wendy Brown (2010); and After Sovereignty edited by Pavlich & Barbour (2010). The historical texts considered in this thesis are Polybius’ Histories (264-146 BC); Six Books of the Commonwealth by Jean Bodin (1576); Leviathan by the Thomas Hobbes (1651); and John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government (1689). The main conclusion in this thesis is that through a thorough philosophical analysis of the concept of sovereignty, it becomes evident that sovereignty evades any fixed meanings, and is inherently ambiguous and polysemic. Being polysemic the concept then allows re-configurations and re-conceptualizations that enable conceiving sovereignty as something that can be dispersed, shared or transferred. In addition, such re-conceptualization is further enabled by deliberations and iterations of the concept manifesting in deliberative sovereignty discourse. Throughout the thesis some important considerations and reservations are identified, which will eventually suggest several avenues for further research on the concept of sovereignty.