Neil Walker’s analysis in his Foreword article of the centrality of sovereignty to contemporary politics is compelling, in that it reveals the extent to which this concept underpins current theorizing about the state and its legal structure. In this Afterword, I explore two questions that arise from Walker’s analysis: why has sovereignty remained so central to our legal and political thinking? And is the centrality of sovereignty desirable? I suggest that the answer to both questions may have to do with the connection tying modern understandings of sovereignty with the democratic principle of popular power.

中文翻译：

---

民主与主权：尼尔·沃克前言的后记

尼尔沃克在他的前言文章中关于主权对当代政治的中心性的分析是令人信服的，因为它揭示了这一概念在多大程度上支撑了当前关于国家及其法律结构的理论。在这篇后记中，我探讨了沃克分析中产生的两个问题：为什么主权在我们的法律和政治思想中仍然如此重要？主权的中心地位是否可取？我认为这两个问题的答案可能与将现代对主权的理解与人民权力的民主原则联系起来有关。