O suverenitetu
On Sovereignty

Summary/Abstract: The author initiates the article with the theory that the concept of sovereignty significantly differs in the late middle ages and the early modern age. Bodin gave to the sovereign the competency to both legislation and commanding and thus created a significant shift forward from the medieval monarchical competency. Although he connected the two competencies, he was still unable to make sovereign master o f law but only master o f statutes, with some limitations. The modem age recognizes two types of sovereignty: sovereignty o f the sovereign and sovereignty o f the people. The first case deals with absolute monarchies, while the second is concerned with democracies. Today, only the latter case is politically relevant. The author differentiates between ’the people’ as a group of autonomous individuals, and ’the people’ as an organic entity. The first form of political unity comes from the autonomous individuals, and sees in the government only limiting power, while the second sees the basis for political unity in the whole of the ethnic body, culture, language, religion, history, etc. The second form has its roots in the romanticism of the 19th century, and after the fall of socialist systems, is again dominant in political thought and practice. The author warns of the dangers of one-sided use of organic unity in the creation of political communities and considers a combination of national and individual elements (democratic and liberal) the only successful basis for sovereignty.

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