theorist Thomas HOBBESalso places sovereignty in a
king or a single absolutist ruler but has his authority
derive from a social contract among the common peo-
ple. John LOCKE, similarly, situates sovereignty in free
individuals in the STATE OF NATURE, possessing NATURAL
RIGHTSto “Life, LIBERTYand PROPERTY” and setting up a
state to protect those RIGHTS. So, sovereignty is dele-
gated to the government by the people and is only
legitimate if it is serving those CITIZENs’ good. If the
STATE offends those rights (by killing, robbing, or
enslaving the people) the original sovereignty of the
masses can be reclaimed and given to a new govern-
ment (as Thomas JEFFERSONexplains in the DECLARA-
TION OF INDEPENDENCEfor the United States). One of
the key differences between Great Britain and the
United States of America is their respective concep-
tions of sovereignty. For Britain, sovereignty resides in
Parliament, or the institution of government; for the
United States, sovereignty resides the “The People.” In
one, the state controls the people; in the other, the
people control the state. Jean-Jacques ROUSSEAU, the
MODERNFrench liberal, places sovereignty in the GEN-
ERAL WILLof the community that (unlike British/U.S.
liberalism) can rule over individual rights. This image
of a sovereign “will” over individual rights proceeds to
the COMMUNISTand FASCISTideas of sovereignty in a
ruling class or unified state.
How sovereignty is defined, then, greatly affects
how individual rights and the power of government
are practiced.
Further Readings
Hinsley, F. H. Sovereignty.Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1966.
Jouvenel, B. de. Sovereignty .Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1957.
Soviet Union
The political thought of the Soviet Union (or USSR)
was officially MARXISM-LENINISM, or orthodox COMMU-
NISM. It claimed a government ruled by the industrial
working class (or proletariat). In MARXISTtheory, this
DICTATORSHIPof the proletariat is the appropriate gov-
ernment under socialism. Although claiming to rule
for the people, the Soviet communist state under V.I.
LENIN and Joseph STALINcame to be an oppressive
monopolistic one-party dictatorship that employed ter-
ror, secret police, censorship, and IDEOLOGICALindoc-
trination to maintain its rule. All aspects of economic,
social, educational, and family life were controlled by
the central state. This TOTALITARIAN system restricted
individual FREEDOMand RIGHTSto thought, movement,
and PROPERTY.Soviet communismbecame synonymous
with BUREAUCRATICrule, inefficiency, oppression, and
international aggression. By the mid-1980s, the Soviet
economy was declining with decreased productivity,
alcoholism and depression were rampant in Soviet
society, and numerous dissidents criticized the Soviet
system. President Gorbachev attempted DEMOCRATIC
reforms in the 1980s that finally led to the dissolution
of the Soviet Union, the establishment of independent
regional REPUBLICS, and formal constitutional democ-
racy and CAPITALISM. Full freedom, individual rights
(for example to private property or religious belief),
and representative government have not yet been real-
ized in Russia.282 Soviet Union
My stroim kommunizm! (We are building Communism!), 1968,
USSR.(LIBRARY OFCONGRESS)