No single group holds ultimate sovereign control in modern states

Evidence

Political control in a modem nation is pluralistic and shifting, a matter of more or less, of compromise and cooperation and alliance, so that it is often impossible to say that any person or group has that dramatic control necessary to qualify as an Austinian sovereign. One wants to say, in the United States for example, that the “people” are sovereign. But this means almost nothing, and in itself provides no test for determining what the “people” have commanded, or distinguishing their legal from their social or moral commands. — Ronald M. Dworkin, The Model of Rules, 39

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the pluralist critique in political science (e.g., Dahl’s polyarchy) applied to jurisprudence. — connects to: Only seven countries hold true monetary sovereignty today. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 364; Agrarian states never achieved the internal pacification of modern states — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 256; State sovereignty is constituted by the nation-state system, not prior to it — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 172 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• State sovereignty is constituted by the nation-state system, not prior to it #expands (0.85) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 172