Making Democracy Work: A Multidimensional Theory of Sovereignty.

The scholarly debate over sovereignty at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 has focused on whether the American political system is best understood in federal or national terms. Instead of pursuing this question, this paper asks the more fundamental question of whether the United States Constitution is grounded on a single, coherent theory of sovereignty. An analysis of Madison’s Notes on the Debates of the Federal Convention of 1787, treating delegates individually and across time, illustrates that the Founders were committed to a single, multidimensional theory of sovereignty. The theory is multidimensional in that it separates sovereignty into two distinct concepts, principle sovereignty (the authority from which power is drawn) a derived sovereignty (the exercise of power). This theory relies on a principle/agent relationship which is created to deal with the practical problems associated with popular sovereignty. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]