The sovereign authority in any country is the power of making laws, and everything else is an official department.
Thomas Paine: “The sovereign authority in any country is the power of making laws, and everything else is an official department.”
Editor's note · Context
In his analysis of government structures, Paine defines the core of sovereign power as the ability to create laws.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
It was become evident, that no constitution, worthy of being called by that name, could be established on anything less than a national ground.
They form a common policy throughout Europe, detached and separate from the interest of Nations: and while they appear to quarrel, they agree to plunder.
The animosity of the English nation, it is very well remembered, ran high; and, had the true principles of Liberty been as well understood then as they now promise to be, it is probable the Nation would not have patiently submitted to so…
It was a sort of new form of government that insensibly served to put the old one out of sight and to unhinge it from the superstitious authority of antiquity.