As the political sovereign is not known to law, it is unorganised, the indeter iminar not even precise, modern representative democracies ipolitical sovereign is very often identified with eit whole mas ect rate or with BuLthe litical sovereign ther the electorate nor is identical with the whole mass o e people, Publi influ nces in the first wide hi Opinion beidentified e public opinion. Taking first the electorate, no one can doub0 political power in a representative system of government The legislature dare not disregard the will nf the electorate. It may e command the legislature to do its bidding. If it does not, the members of the gislature may be punished at the next election for failure to obey the will of the electorate. Every lew years, the electorate creates a new representative chamber, and in doing so it largely determines the nature of parliamentary commands. But on closer examination, it will be found that the electors have no independent opinion of their own. They are influenced by party politics and while casting their votes, they vote for the party rather than for the candidates. The decision of the electorate is also influenced by religious and caste considerations, particularly in India, and the role of press, publicity and propaganda in a democratic State is significant. Thus, so many influences visible and hidden, affect the decisions of the electorate that it becomes difficult to say where sovereignty precisely lies
Nor can we take political sovereignty synonymous with the mass of the people. Quite a sizable number of the people are usually to They do not nt to govern themselves and would not know how do so even they wanted to. en, all the people do not enjoy the right to vote. who do not enjoy this right can neither participate in the election of their representatives nor have they any constitutional means at their disposal to effectively influence the decisions of the legal sovereign. It is also possible hartie masses may be under the influence of either the priestly class or aristocracy, militarists. Even if it is not, in the best of democracies, where or the the F:ople believe that they govern themselves, it can still be suggested that real power gravitates(or ascends) to a small elite. lt is, therefore, not the mass of the people which constitute the political sovereign. It really rests in that class of people under whose influence they actually are. Similarly, political sov sreignty eg nnot be equated to public opinion Public opinion is of a highW fluctuatin nature and usceptible to vari have two characteristics. It should be. influences. Then, public opinion in the first place, an opinion of a public nature, and secondly, it should be as wide v held by the public as possible But one cannot always be sure that the