A recipe for a cookshop of the future: G.D.H. Cole and the conundrum of sovereignty

The concept of state sovereignty has, since Hobbes,been a highly contentious and much-debated issue. Marx’s critique that institutional detachments obscure the modern state’s embodiment in socioeconomic relations encapsulates the reason why sovereignty is not simply a political issue. This paper argues that the guild socialist theorist G.D.H. Cole completes Marx’s analysis, effectively filling out Marx’s critique of the liberal state as a mask behind which capitalist power thrives. In seeking to defend Cole from his critics, the paper shows that while Cole’s scheme permits a sovereign body to exist, the manner in which its powers are exercised is constitutionally restricted. Such formal limitations successfully redefine the substance of sovereignty.