Sunday, March 7, 2010
America's Sovereign
In class we have discussed who or what America’s sovereign in Hobbes’ terms is, on multiple occasions, without a real definitive result. I’d like to further study that in this blog post, and am interested in hearing your thoughts as well. The first office most of us assumed to be the sovereign was the president. However, he does not have absolute power, because both Congress and the Supreme Court have the power to veto or overrule the president. Others thought maybe the Constitution was the sovereign. Yet this is also lacking absolute sovereignty, because it is possible to amend the Constitution. Also, Congress does not have absolute power because both the president and the Supreme Court can overrule or veto. Further, the House of Representatives can veto the Senate and vice versa, so at times there is not even a consensus within Congress in itself. Perhaps sovereignty ultimately lies with the American people. I do not think Hobbes would like this answer. As subjects of the Commonwealth, the American people must follow the laws and rules of the Commonwealth, an obligation that the sovereign is not subject to. My first thoughts on this lead me to believe that America’s sovereign was actually the Supreme Court, but not even they could be considered the sovereign. The Supreme Court has the final say on judicial matters that cannot be overridden by Congress or the president, but that is as far as their power extends. The judges have no power in legislative or executive branches of the government, nor do they choose their successors. In the end, it appears to me that America has no absolute sovereign, at least not within the government. Anyone have any thoughts as to who or what our nation’s sovereign might be?
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I think the reason we're having trouble finding a sovereign in America is because of the organizational structure of our government. Wary to avoid a monarchy after having just fought a war against one, the founders originally set up our government as a confederacy of states, with an extremely weak central government. Eventually we did away with the Articles of Confederation and gave enough power to the central government to unite the states more strongly, but great pains were taken to distribute those powers Hobbes calls 'indivisible.' As a result, we look at our government and can't identify one specific branch that has the most power. In fact, we even have to consider the idea that power rests in money more so than government. It makes for a confusing mess.
ReplyDeleteI would also agree that America is without a sovereign. But I think that's the idea. America was established on the principle of checks and balances - a notion entirely wanting to Hobbes - to limit the very possibility of an absolute power from arising. If it wasn't this way, there would have been no reason for the colonies to declare freedom from the British Empire to begin with. All the same, I suppose the closest thing to an absolute power in America would be the people, for though we do not elect our officials, we elect the officials who elect our officials.
ReplyDeletei agree with Mr. Haney. The fact that we can't identify the absolute power in America is evidence that the founder's intentions were actualized (although that says nothing of the goodness of the intentions). America is founded both on the traditions of Christianity and Capitalism. Both of these traditions seem to say that man is a fundamentally greedy creature who looks out mainly for himself (this is why capitalism works and why we need Christianity). If you were going to try to gain absolute power in America would become president, a senator, a supreme court judge, or a military general? You don't know and that is what the founders intended.
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