The nature and meaning of Governance in Islam prevent the formation of the dual sovereignty known in the Middle Ages—namely, the Emperor of Rome and the Pope—which conflicted with the model of absolute, unaccountable modern sovereignty. This modern model was proposed by figures such as Jean Bodin (1530–1596), Hugo Grotius (1583–1645), the founder of international law in Western traditions, Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), and John Austin (1613–1669). Their concept of sovereignty emerged under specific conditions that gripped 16th-century Europe. Later, the French Revolution overthrew traditional authority and, following the Enlightenment, established reason as the ultimate sovereign.
George Soros explains these conditions as follows:
“Reason proved unsuitable for this task, and the enthusiasm of 1789 turned into the terror of 1793. However, the foundational ideas of the Enlightenment were not rejected. On the contrary, Napoleon’s army spread the ideas of modernity to other parts of Europe. The achievements of modernity are unparalleled. Despite these remarkable accomplishments, reason fell short of meeting the expectations placed on it, particularly in social and political arenas. The gap between objectives and results remained unbridged. In fact, the more radical the goals, the more disappointing the outcomes. I believe this holds true for both communism and market fundamentalism, which both claimed to be scientific.
I want to emphasize a specific case with unintended consequences, which is particularly relevant to the present situation: when the main political ideas of the Enlightenment were implemented, they contributed to the strengthening of the concept of the nation-state. In their struggle to establish the sovereignty of reason over rulers, people rose up and seized the power of a sovereign. Thus, the nation-state, in which sovereignty belongs to the people, was born. Whatever its advantages, this concept significantly diverged from its universalist, Enlightenment-inspired origins.”
Due to religious revivalism and the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, followed by the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of national monarchies in the 17th century, Europe underwent a secularization process in its political thought. The circumstances surrounding conflicts between absolute rulers forced political thinkers to seek a new theoretical foundation for this novel political phenomenon.
