Abbé Sieyès

The chapter poses the question of the origins of national sovereignty theory by looking at its development in the work of Abbé Sieyès. The chapter notes that Sieyès was critical of the concept of ‘sovereignty’, even though he is referenced by Raymond Carré de Malberg as the original theorist of national sovereignty. However, valuable insights can be drawn from Sieyès’ work in order to shed new light on the opposition of popular and national sovereignty. The chapter suggests that Sieyès’ theory can be divided into two paradigms – immanent and transcendent. While Sieyès’ thought shifted from the immanent to the transcendent understanding of the nation, ideas from both paradigms influenced theories of sovereignty in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By framing Sieyès’ ideas as the relation between the immanent and the transcendent paradigm, the chapter questions the alleged incompatibility of popular and national sovereignty and envisions their potential combination.