Sovereignty in Conflict

This edited volume brings together leading international researchers in an attempt to disentangle and understand the multiple conflicts of sovereignty within the European polity in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. While most research on sovereignty focuses on its international dimensions, what makes this volume distinctive is the focus on the mobilization of sovereignty discourses in national politics. Contrary to tired paradigms studying clashes between national and supranational sovereignty, the various chapters of the volume offer a provocation for the readers - what if these old vertical conflicts of sovereignty are increasingly complemented by horizontal conflicts between executives and parliaments at both the national and international level?

This edited volume brings together leading international researchers in an attempt to disentangle and understand the multiple conflicts of sovereignty within the European polity in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. While most research on sovereignty focuses on its international dimensions, what makes this volume distinctive is the focus on the mobilization of sovereignty discourses in national politics. Contrary to tired paradigms studying clashes between national and supranational sovereignty, the various chapters of the volume offer a provocation for the readers – what if these old vertical conflicts of sovereignty are increasingly complemented by horizontal conflicts between executives and parliaments at both the national and international level?

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Part 1: Constitutional Debates around Sovereignty.- Chapter 2: Conflicting Sovereignties and the Sustainability of the Brexit State.- Chapter 3: Procedural Battles on Sovereignty: Interpreting the Rules in the House of Commons.- Chapter 4: Sovereignty, democratic legitimacy and the problem of the demos in Spain: the case of Catalonia.- Chapter 5: Defending sovereignty in the name of post-sovereignty: Liberal and illiberal constitutional idioms in the EU.- Chapter 6: The Struggle over Direct Democracy in Germany: ‘Populist’ Demand for Popular Sovereignty?.- Part 2: Sovereignty in socio-economic debates.- Chapter 7: Sovereignty Conflicts and Their Alternatives. Politicising European Labour Politics in French, Irish, and Swiss EU Referendum Debates (2000-2020).- Chapter 8: The Technocratic Populist Loop in EU’s Eastern and Southern Periphery: between democratic representation and technocratic solutions for economic governance.- Chapter 9: Selective politicization of sovereignty: Hungary's economic embedding and political disembedding from the EU.- Part 3: Sovereignty debates in party politics.- Chapter 10: “What is it, and why does it matter? The meaning of sovereignty in the Rassemblement National’s critique of European integration”.- Chapter 11: Sovereignty in the Populist Radical Right Discourse: The Right of the People and the Right of the Peoples.- Chapter 12: Left-wing Populism and Sovereignty: an Analysis of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Discourse.- Chapter 13: Conclusion.