GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

SOVEREIGNTY AND NATURAL RIGHTS 561
Thus, it was said, Sovereignty ought to reside in the
prince, the executive, the people, or the majority of the
people. Also although
the theorists themselves seem
scarcely to have been aware of the transition Sovereignty
does reside in the prince, the executive, the people, or the
majority of the people. But it is far from clear that
Sovereignty in a community necessarily should or morally
ought to reside always in the same place, and it is certainly
not dear that it always does reside in the same place. I
personally happen to hold the view that Sovereignty
ought to reside in the people as a whole, but this view
owns no more authoritative basis than my own unsupported
intuition, and I do not know how to defend the assertion
if challenged. That Sovereignty ought to reside in the
people seems to me to be self-evident, but I am well
aware that it is very far from being evident to all people.
Moreover, I do not see how it is possible to prove by
argument either that the people can or should, or cannot
or should not, delegate its Sovereign powers to ative persons or bodies.
represent*
The question, where Sovereignty actually does reside,
seems to be purely one of fact. If Sovereignty means
effective power in the community, effective power in one
community may be wielded by a dictator; in another it
may be embodied in custom, in another crystallized in
the law, in another exercised by a popular assembly.
But effective power does not necessarily reside anywhere.
The State may, that is to say, use force, and all States
known to history have in fact used force, but it is not clear
that force either does or should reside always in the same
element in, or section of the State. The view has been
authoritatively put forward in modern times that there is
nothing peculiar or sacrosanct about the State as a form
of human association. 1 It is simply one form of human
association among many. It exists for special purposes
just as clubs, guilds, churches and armies exist for special
purposes, its purposes being distinguished from those of
1
See Chapter XVIII, pp. 737-739, for a development of this view.