So we are faced with a paradox: the reality of governmental power is based on the people's belief in that power; even though the expression of that power—coercive or supportive (for more on this see below)—is very real. This is the reason Mahatma Gandhi was correct when he pointed out to the British Viceroy that 100,000 British could not rule over 400,000,000 Indians, unless those Indians consented to British rule.
The proper province of government power is not simply coercive, although that is what most of us think of when we think of government power. Any legitimate government (and even some illegitimate) will also have a supportive component to its power. This will be used in times of natural and large-scale human disasters, as well as for the creation and maintenance of a physical and social infrastructure, to help insure the safety, prosperity, and well-being of the governed.
Sovereignty is the nexus of authority and power. Internally, it is based upon the inherent power of the persons or institutions that are sovereign. This in turn is based upon the degree of belief of the governed in that power. It must be noted that the very nature of sovereignty is such that those persons or institutions that are sovereign are not subject to any laws or limits that they do not accede to.
If the People withdraw that extended sovereignty—by no longer believing in the United States, its Constitution, and its power—then a revolution, whether violent or nonviolent, has occurred; altering forever the relationship between the people of this nation and the government of the United States.
This is the moral basis for Jefferson's statement in the Declaration of Independence: “...that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” This is also at the heart of Abraham Lincoln's statement (from his First Inaugural Address) that “This country, with its institutions, belong to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.”
One further comment on belief being the source of all political power: It does not have to be unanimous to be successful. It was the belief in the continued Union of the States, more than the belief in the abolition of slavery, that permitted Abraham Lincoln and the North to overcome the South and its belief in states rights in the American Civil War.
There are some people who believe that sovereignty resides within the individual, and not the People as a whole; that the People's sovereignty arises from the individual's innate sovereignty.
But remember what I wrote earlier: that sovereignty is at the nexus of authority and power. You must have both in order to have sovereignty. (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
An individual has no innate authority over anyone except himself, and perhaps, to a limited extent, his minor children. For someone to have authority over others, the belief in the existence of that authority must exist among those over whom that authority exists.
This leaves the question of power and individual sovereignty.
One of the primary attributes of sovereignty (according to Thomas Hobbes and other philosophers) is that you are not subject to the power of any law that you do not accede to. Any person who believes themselves to be above or beyond Federal, state, or local power and authority in the United States is deluding themselves: ask Randy Weaver and David Koresh. You can argue that the power and authority of the government is illegitimate, but as long as most Americans believe in the Constitution—and its derivative laws and regulations—we are all subject to those laws.
Remember, the power (and for that matter the scope) of all governments is directly proportionate to the number of people who believe it exists. If only you, or even you and a few of your friends, believe yourself sovereign, your lack of real power makes your belief, to me, absurd.
It is the belief of millions of Americans in the Constitution and its derivative laws, which provides the power upon which our nation bases its sovereignty, and give government its scope, or more properly, limits of authority.
For other nations, American sovereignty is not merely our power, and our ability to express our power, but our reputation. It is the belief—especially the belief of the individual citizens of other nations—of our essential goodness that underlies the United States greatness. George W. Bush (like Napoleon and Hitler before him) never understood that a bully may be feared, but he is never respected and is often reviled, as Lao Tzu pointed out above. Bill Clinton stated a much higher truth than perhaps he realized when he spoke of “The power of our example, not an example of our power,” last summer.
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