ABSTRACT
Global institutional design – to address such issues as climate change, human rights, world poverty, and the regulation of migration, trade, labour, tax competition, and financial markets – strikes many as being the most pressing challenge of our time. This chapter discusses the analytical device of the domestic analogy, which consists of treating states as agents that are relevantly similar to individual actors in one or more respects. It argues that more attention ought to be paid to the positive aspects of sovereignty; that positive sovereignty can be hindered by globally systemic, as well as internal, factors. The chapter aims to see whether the broad distinction between negative and positive liberty can be of some use to highlight different conceptions of state sovereignty. The positive aspects of sovereignty point to the substantive problem-solving capacity of states and to their ability to make meaningful and genuinely discretionary choices on a range of issues.
