Bastard Politics: Sovereignty and Violence

Argues that we need to reinvent sovereignty as a motive for democratic political action while remaining alert to its dangers, specifically its relationship to violence.

Sovereignty is usually seen as either the assertion of national rights in the face of external challenge or the cruel license of unaccountable power. In philosophy, sovereignty has been presented as the earthly manifestation of a potentially limitless, preexisting power, usually belonging to God. This divine sovereignty provi...