Sovereignty - what is it ?

[pinkpops]

Here's one dictionary's definition:

1. Supremacy of authority or rule as exercised by a sovereign or sovereign state. 2. Royal rank, authority, or power. 3. Complete independence and self-government.

Can the Iraq governing council be sovereign if its power and authority is granted by its occupier?

[Maple]

1. No

It's a Vichy govt.

[Fall_No_Further]

2. Here's my problem with this definition.

It's the same problem I have with most definitions of sovereignty, esp. when you're talking about governments. The problem is this: it has no accounting for moral legitimacy. That is, I would submit to you that there is a difference in the level of moral legitimacy that exists in two governments, the first being a democratic republic, with representative government and constitutional limitations upon government power, and the second being a tyrannical autocracy, created in an armed and violent revolution, that denies the people a voice in the government and imposes capricious, outrageous, and reprehensible laws upon its populace. Assuming each government has the same level of raw power, the same capacity--though perhaps exerted in slightly different fashoins--to enforce its mandates and to defend its borders. Each of these governments would be sovereign in the sense that they could defend themselves against incursion and wield a near-absolute power over the life and death of their citizens if they chose to do so. In that sense, each could be termed sovereign. I would contend, however, that a proper definition of the word should take into account the moral and ethical legitimacy of entity in question. A gang of robbers that simply happens to have more and bigger guns than anyone else in the region, no matter their numbers and capacity for destruction, are not legitimate sovereign rulers. IMHO.