We all know in general terms that the sovereignty of a state is the ability of its government to make important decisions regardless of external sources, guided only by considerations of state benefit. However, let us consider in more detail the history and essence of this phenomenon.
The essence of the concept
State sovereignty is the brainchild of modern European political thought. He finally took shape in the middle of the 17th century in the Westphalian system of international relations that emerged after the Thirty Years War in Europe. Then the concept of state sovereignty began to mean the possibility of national governments (then royal) to act independently of the Catholic Church. Indeed, throughout the Middle Ages, the church had an overwhelming influence almost in Western and Central Europe. Kings were forced to consecrate their power and coordinate their actions with the Pope, often adapting to his interests. The era of enlightenment and humanism has generated not only a more attentive attitude towards a person (and, as a consequence, a decline in the role of the church), but also a fundamentally new political and legal freedom of states. The latter allowed national governments to carry out their own actions in foreign and domestic policy in accordance with their own interests. This phenomenon, however, manifests itself in various forms.
So, for example, the absolute sovereignty of a state can be external and internal. External freedom
implies independence in actions of an international nature: declaring war, concluding treaties, entering into blocs, and so on. Accordingly, internal independence is the ability of the government to act freely within its own country in its economic, social, ideological policies and so on. Interestingly, the sovereignty of the state is only one of the options for sovereignty. After all, the latter can apply not only to state formations, but also to society itself.
State sovereignty is national sovereignty
In the modern legal understanding of international law , the concepts of national and national sovereignty are clearly distinguished. The idea of the first was born all the same enlighteners of the New time, although it found its final form only at the end of the XIX century.
Actually, at the same time when the European nations were finally formed. Massive
national movements for the independence of nations that did not have a state (in the 19th century — Hungarians, Czechs, Poles, in the first half of the 20th century — Ukrainians, Basques, Irish, Kurds, and so on) led prominent sociopolitical ideologists to the idea that each nation has its own right to self-determination. That is, the creation of their own state. It is through this formation that its highest aspirations associated with historical memory can be expressed through political, national development and so on.
Popular sovereignty
Another variety of sovereignty in modern international law is popular. It originated even earlier than the national one. The essence of this phenomenon lies in the idea that the source and the highest bearer of power in a particular state is the people (although earlier it was considered the unconditional right of the monarch, sent from above), and any domestic and foreign policy should be implemented with his consent and exclusively in his interests.