Sovereignty as magnanimous agency

The aim of this paper is to explore the notion of collective agency entailed by the theory of popular sovereignty. After examining criticisms of its classical formulation and critiquing Habermas’s interpretation, the article argues that modern conceptions of agency restrict our ability to recognise a form of collective action capable of sustaining the theory. Responsibility is often limited to individual attitudes, leading to alienation from our actions and weakening the collective dimension essential to sovereignty. To address this, the article draws on Robert Brandom’s proposal of a postmodern, magnanimous form of agency, where the intelligibility of actions depends on shared responsibility, extending beyond individual purposes to socially and retrospectively determined governing intentions. This approach introduces a norm-instituting, law-authorising form of collective agency that preserves the radically democratic essence of classical sovereignty theory and defends against the criticisms directed at it.