This political article deals with different concepts of sovereignty. According to Kuyper, constitutional governments in countries such as the Netherlands, England, and the United States derive all political authority from God’s all-embracing sovereignty. The sovereignty of God is the source of a threefold deduction of sovereignty in the state, in society, and in the church. In opposition to this concept, two different theories “are trying to gain the day.” Kuyper points to the atheistic idea of popular sovereignty, which the encyclopedists developed and which came to expression in the French Revolution. He next points to the pantheistic concept of sovereignty, prevalent among the historical-materialist school in Germany. For the benefit of his American readers, he briefly analyzes both competing concepts of sovereignty and judges each to be false.

According to a letter to the editor of The Independent, dated November 25, 1898 (KA 318, 40), Kuyper had submitted a religious article (see 1899.17) and a political article for publication. The publisher reported that he would happily publish both articles and that he was “glad to pay [Kuyper] $25 for them.”