sovereign'[1] is the electorate, which, being wide enough to share and represent the feelings of the mass of the people, does in general obtain obedience to the laws which it approves. But the reason why laws made with the assent or acquiescence of the electorate are obeyed is that the electors constitute a power to which no single citizen and no class of citizens can offer permanent resistance.
That the employment of physical force is the basis of law and of sovereignty anyone may assure himself by observing the way in which law loses its authority whenever the support of the force whence law derives its power is withdrawn. Why has the law of the land little better than a nominal existence in some parts of Ireland? The answer is that, for reasons of party convenience, the British Government will not in Ireland use the power placed in its hands by Parliament for the enforcement of the law. Let a fighting suffragist in her calmer moments ask herself
- ↑ For the distinction between the legal and the political sovereign, see Dicey, 'Law of the Constitution' seventh edition, pp. 70-72.
