Sovereignty is the legal claim to a national monopoly on force. The basis for that claim must be, and ought to be, desert. The sovereign must deserve his monopoly on force; and the one who endures the application of the sovereign's force must deserve it as well.
Desert allows for the violation of the person as fairness does not. Desert thus can shape the use of power as fairness cannot.
Especially when we view desert as that which is bestowed on one by another, that bestowal can be positive or negative: it can be either a gift or a coercion/punishment.
Sovereignty is bestowed as leadership that is deserved.
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