What makes sovereignty a relative concept? Empirical approaches to international society

Abstract

Sovereignty takes on many forms today. Legalistic and absolute conditions of sovereignty have dominated in theoretical reasoning and its practical applications whereas empirical attributes of statehood and relative sovereignty conceptualisations have generally been neglected. Yet, the quantification of empirical sovereignty would give us a few ways to compare and contrast the different degrees of internal and external sovereignty and demonstrate the ‘differences of being sovereign’ among internationally recognised states, de facto states, autonomous regions, dependent territories and governments-in-exile. All these entities display their internal and external attributes of sovereignty, which results in power (efficiency of governance) or symbols (representation of ideas). This paper highlights the need to pay more attention to the empirical aspects of sovereignty – it has to be complemented with the facts on the ground – and shows how to operationalise the relative concept of sovereignty. Ignoring the empirical aspects of sovereignty, or spurning the time-honoured requirement of recognition, is bound to lead to the emergence of failed states.