This philosophy recognises the anti-democratic nature of the centralised nation state on which state protectionism of the past was founded, but also sees the emergence of corporate protectionism as the real threat to democratic rights and economic livelihoods. In this perspective, countering this recolonisation requires the reinvention of state by democratic processes, a state which acts in partnership with its people to protect the natural wealth, the economic livelihoods and the cultural and intellectual heritage of the country. The reinvention of the state has to be based on the reinvention of sovereignty. Sovereignty cannot reside only in centralised state structures, nor does it disappear when the protective functions of the state with respect to its people start to wither away. The new partnership for national sovereignty needs empowered communities which assign functions to the state for their protection.
Communities defending themselves always demand such duties and obligations from state structures.
On the other hand, TNCs and international agencies promote the separation of community interests from state interests and the fragmentation and divisiveness of communities. The need for a revitalisation and legal recognition of communities is a necessary countervailing step to create a people's protectionism. Corporate protectionism has expanded the legal rights of corporations as legal entities. It has simultaneously undermined the customary rights of communities through which people's livelihoods were protected. Legal identity for communities is also needed to give substance to democratic decentralisation, based on Panchayati Raj which in turn has to be based on gram sabhas or village communities as the highest unit of democratic decision making.