State sovereignty and the empowerment of civil society

Thèmes abordés

State, sovereignty, citizen diplomacy, authority, shared sovereignty, NGOs, powers

Résumé du document

The concept of sovereignty is a highly contested one and is much debated in the wake of the social changes brought about by globalization. New connections emerge, leading to a new balance of powers between the state and the civil society. This civil society is very heterogeneous: it includes NGOs, diasporas, transnational corporations, global finance institutions, mafias, terrorists networks; i.e., any social or economic group organizing society, potentially under the control of the state but still independent from it. According to Kalevi Holsti, the notion of sovereignty refers to “a supreme authority within a defined territorial realm. It is the ultimate source of law, and it transcends any particular ruler or ruling group.” ¹ Thus, we can distinguish the internal aspect of sovereignty, linked with territories, and its external aspect which stands for the equality of the states and their constitutional independence at the international level. The new actors from the civil society are generally believed to encroach upon this state sovereignty by competing with states in their essential functions, i.e., protection and security of the citizens, decision-making and the creation of a common identity. By acting more and more at an international scale, not only does civil society supplant public administration, but it also transcends borders, making the idea of territory obsolete whereas it is traditionally a fundamental aspect of sovereignty.

Extraits

[...] Institutional Change in International Politics, Cambridge; New York : Cambridge University Press HILL, Christopher, The Changing Politics of Foreign Policy, London, Palgrave, Macmillan LEGUEY-FEILLEUX, Jean Robert, The Dynamics of Diplomacy, Boulder, Colo.; London : Lynne Rienner Publishers NYE, Joseph, et KEOHANE Robert Transnational Relations and World Politics, Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press ROSENAU, James N., Turbulences in World Politics : A theory of Change and Continuity, Princeton, Princeton University Press SASSEN, Saskia, Sovereignty in an Age of Globalization, Columbia University Press, New York STRANGE, Susan, The Retreat of the State : The diffusion of Power in World Economy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge ZARTMAN, William, Collapsed States. The Desintegration and Restauration of Legitimate Authority, Boulder : Lynne Rinne, 1995. [...]

[...] The last point to advocate the declining sovereignty of the state is the irrelevance of the territory with the new role and powers of civil society: borders are porous, since the new actors act on a transnational scale, going beyond the traditional framework of Bertrand Badie, Le Retournement du Monde; sociologie de la scène internationale, Presses de SciencesPo territories. Moreover, mafias and terrorist networks point out the uselessness of these borders: the state is unlikely to protect its citizens; it was defied within its own territory. Of course the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center is the embodiment of this failure, as notably contended by Josépha Laroche. [...]

[...] The example of NGOs is conclusive too. OXFAM for instance, a global NGO addressing poverty and injustice in the world, has a great influence in poor countries, experiencing civil peace though. Indeed, their budgets are often superior than those of the countries they are involved in, so they are potentially in position to influence public policies, and may even supplant it when public administration is too weak by providing help to the homeless, supply of food and water, or even deal with immigration. [...]

[...] State-centric paradigms consider the state as sacrosanct and its sovereignty unlikely to be eroded by the civil society. Kalevi Holsti is one of the staunchest representative of this traditionalist state-centric view. Going against the grain of the commonly- held view that institutions within a state had to adapt to the social changes implied by globalization, like the empowerment of civil society, he considers that these alleged new actors were produced by the “permissive context” allowed by theses institutions. According to him, state either is sovereign or is not. [...]

[...] It can delegate some authority, which is an accepted and legitimized use of power, but in the end the concept of sovereignty cannot be reduced to powers and influence. Civil society only has more powers and influence, hence state is sovereign. Marie-Claude Smouts, Dictionnaire des Relations Internationales, Dalloz Bibliography AGNEW, John, Globalization and Sovereignty, New York, Rowman and Littelfield BADIE, Bertrand, la souveraineté à l'incapacité de l'Etat” in Marie-Claude Smouts Les Nouvelles Relations Internationales. Pratiques et Théories, Presses de Sciences Po COHEN, Elie, La Tentation Hexagonale. [...]