political sovereignty. but absolute and unlimited authority of the legal sovereign does not exist anywhere. not even a despot can act independently and exclusively. his will is actually shaped by the many and varied influences which are unknown to law. All these influences are the real power behind the legal sovereign. as dicey puts it, "behind the sovereign which the lawyer recognises,there is another sovereign to whom the legal sovereign must bow" This is called the political sovereign, and, according to professor Gilchrist,the political sovereign is the sum total of the influences in a state which lie behind the law. 8