Idea
Power and authority answer different questions
An armed faction may control a street without possessing the recognized right to govern it. A lawful government may claim authority over an area where it cannot enforce its decisions. Sovereignty concerns the place of supreme authority; effective control concerns what a ruler can actually make happen. The two can diverge.
Bodin wrote amid the French Wars of Religion, when competing loyalties made the unity of political authority an urgent problem. He argued for a continuing source of lawmaking power rather than treating every delegated office as sovereign. An official could exercise extensive powers without owning the authority from which those powers came.
A powerful official may still hold borrowed authority.
Ask whether a power is supreme or delegated before asking how large it is.
Where it breaks down
Sovereignty is disputed territory in political theory. Constitutional government, international obligations, and divided powers complicate the image of one unlimited decision-maker. Bodin's account was also bounded by obligations he regarded as higher than ordinary human law; absolute did not mean every imaginable act was permissible.
How it connects
The distinction between supreme and delegated power clarifies what an office can claim.
This idea appeared in Where the final decision rests, the Involves connection for September 19, 2026, which asked: What makes an authority supreme rather than merely powerful?
Check yourself
Why can an official with extensive powers still lack sovereignty?
The powers may be delegated and temporary. Exactly. The source and status of a power matter, not simply its scope.
What the sources establish
Recognized authority and effective control are distinct; Bodin's absolute authority did not eliminate every higher obligation.
Sources
Sovereignty (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Definition; Bodin and the development of the concept