What Does Sovereignty Mean?

Sovereignty is defined as the supreme power of a state or nation within its boundaries.  It is a government free from external control and influence.  It can also refer to the royal authority or the rule of the monarchy.  The criticisms of the foreign government against a state of mistreatment of its own citizens can be silenced by the nation's stand about it being a sovereign state.

It is believed that Plato was the first person who loosely dealt with the concept of sovereignty.   Jean Bordin, the French political philosopher was the first theorist who conceptualized the modern concept of sovereignty in his "Six Bookes of a Commonweale" (1576). Thomas Hobbes, the English philosopher advanced the concept laid by Bordin who said that the prince was the sovereign power who had the power to declare the law. Hobbes widened the concept by saying that the prince not only had the sovereign power to declare the law but also create it. The concept of absolute political and moral power was linked to the growth of the modern state. Today the term is used to underline the attribute of a state rather than just one entity. A sovereign state or nation is the one which is free, and capable of making its own decisions like forming laws and forging pacts of trade and political agreements with foreign countries.

Sovereignty means unlimited power.

Government free from control