The secret of the superiority of the State over all previous political forms has consisted in the separation of political power from private property. Before the State, political power has always been a correlate of land ownership. This power was articulated in the form of “multiple subordinate and dependent powers” (Montesquieu) at the head of which was a “sovereign” power. Pre-state sovereignty was a relative concept. The King was sovereign over other powers, which were not sovereign, but were powers of a political nature. Hence the need to define the “characteristic signs of sovereignty” (Bodin), which differentiated sovereign power from those that were not sovereign. Make war and make peace and power of grace ultimately. Sovereignty as a monopoly in the exercise of power will be the novelty of the Constitutional State with respect to the Absolute Monarchy. A novelty that will have its origin in England, a model on which the legitimacy of the State will be built based on the principle of “parliamentary sovereignty” first, on that of “popular sovereignty” later in the United States of America, and on that of “ national sovereignty” in France.
The Constitutional State requires as a premise the identification of a place of residence of the power with a democratic vocation. The power of the State does not belong to “anyone” no matter how much it is owned. The power of the State has to belong to “everyone.” Hence the need for the right to vote and its gradual but inexorable extension until it becomes universal suffrage. It is a process that will take several centuries, managing to establish itself in a stable manner only after the Second World War.
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