Definitions HQ

Sovereignty (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a technology that operates on territories.

Sovereignty (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the power to permit any given individual life to endure, or not. Biopower involves collective living, and does not substitute for, but reshapes sovereignty as the power to make something live or to let it die, the power to regularize life, the authority to force living not just to happen but to endure and appear in particular ways.

Sovereignty (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the right to take life or let live rather than the right to put people to death or to grant them life.

Sovereignty (n.) in ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠Sade reverses Rousseau: a society whose only link is the rejection of every link, where nature is no longer transposed but merely an object on which the sovereign measures his total liberty.

Sovereignty (n.) still ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠obsesses political theory; what we need is a political philosophy not built around law and prohibition — we need to cut off the king's head.