In this article you will learn about the various Types of Sovereignty in Political Science.
Types of Sovereignty
Sovereignty resides in the State in several kinds/forms :
Nominal Sovereignty
Nominal Sovereignty is also known as Titular Sovereignty. A nominal or titular sovereignty is one in whose name the supreme power or the sovereign power of the State is exercised, but he himself does not exercise it. For example, the President of India is a nominal sovereign, all powers are exercised in his name by the Union Council of Ministers and its head, the Prime Minister. Likewise, the Japanese Emperor and the British Queen are also nominal or titular sovereigns in their respective States.
Real Sovereign
The real sovereign is the one who himself exercises his sovereign power. He actually uses the sovereignty of the State and all the citizens are bound by his commands. The US President, as the head of the State as well as the real executive of the USA, is an example of a real sovereign.
De Jure Sovereign
De Jure Sovereign is that person or a group of persons who has the legal title to the Sovereignty of the State. He is duly elected and lawfully constituted holder of authority of the State and has the constitutional legal right to run the State administrative and command the people. Being a lawful ruler he holds the sovereign power by the virtue of law and all the people are legally bound to follow and obey his commands.
De Facto Sovereign
The person or a group of persons who comes to wield the authority or power of the State by means other than the lawful means i.e. by a revolution or a coup, is known as De Facto Sovereign. By virtue of his ability to exercise power he begins commanding the people even though the title to his authority is not legal. This happens when a change of ruler comes through revolt or coup in which a new ruler comes to forcibly replace the duly elected/appointed working lawful ruler. Since the revolt creates an uncertain situation in which the lawfully constituted sovereign (the De Jure Sovereign) has the legal title to use supreme power of the State, but because of the facts of revolution, the new rule starts exercising supreme power (De Facto Sovereign) over the people. For some time both De jure and De facto Sovereign coexist.
Normally a sovereign is both De Jure and De Facto Sovereign simultaneously. It is only in an uncertain situation created by a revolution or coup that a distinction is made between them.
Legal Sovereignty
Legal sovereign is the one who has got the supreme power to make laws i.e. issue all the legal commands which are binding upon the people. He possesses the supreme power of law-making. The group or institution who has the power to express the will of the State in legal form is the legal sovereign or in other words, the person or institution that has the law-making power in the State is the legal sovereign. In England the King-in-Parliament and in India the President-in-Parliament are the legal sovereign but in India the President-in-Parliament can exercise law making powers only in respect of union, concurrent and residuary subjects.
Political Sovereignty
The political sovereign regulates the exercise of legal sovereignty by the legal sovereign. The political sovereign is not known, also not really organised and is in itself incapable of expressing the will of the State. Yet it is present behind the legal sovereign and it acts under the influence of the political sovereign.
Let us prove this point by taking an example. The law-making body of the State i.e. the Parliament is the legal sovereign. The parliament then passes each law by a majority. The majority party in the parliament really exercises the law-making power by virtue of the simple fact that it has a majority. The majority party then acts as the political sovereign. But some scholars say that it is not the majority party alone which is the political sovereign; the latter includes the majority party and all the social, cultural, economic, political interest groups that exercise influence upon the activities of the majority party.
Popular Sovereignty
The sovereignty of the people is known as the Popular Sovereignty. In modern State people are recognised and regarded as the ultimate source of all authority and power. People are the real makers of the legal and popular sovereignty and the representatives exercise power on behalf of those people. Therefore, the people are the real sovereign.
This article on Types of Sovereignty in Political Science is contributed by Dipshikha Anand. If you like LawStudyPoint.com do follow us on our Twitter handle.