Managing Complexity Through Social Intelligence by Jeremy Horne

Author:Jeremy Horne
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783031254444
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

For Bluntschli’s “the State is the unity of the whole, the unity of the whole, the cohesion of the nation (Ibid., p. 23),” and “without a nation (Volk), there is no State” (Ibid., p.23). “The State is a moral organism” (Ibid., p. 15). He says “[A] permanent relation of the people to the soil is necessary for the continuance of the State. The State requires its territory: nation and country go together” (Ibid.), an idea not too far distant from Nazi Germany’s “Blut und Boden,” blood and soil.

Putting it all together, “The State is in no way a lifeless instrument, a dead machine: it is a living and therefore organized being” (Ibid., p. 24). Bluntschli says that German jurists have “...recognized the organic nature of the Nation and the State” (Ibid., p. 25). Following Hobbes, he says, “The State indeed is not a product of nature, and therefore it is not a natural organism; it is indirectly the work of man” (Ibid., p 25).

Bluntschli cites Hegel (Bluntschli, p. 69), “The state is the realized ethical idea or ethical spirit. It is the will which manifests itself, makes itself clear and visible, substantiates itself. (Hegel, 1833/1896/2001, §257, p. 194).” Bluntschli claims, though, “Hegel’s State is however only a logical abstraction, not a living organism, a mere logical notion, not a person” (Bluntschli, p. 69). Further:The Nation (Volk) is a necessarily connected whole, while Society is a casual association of a number of individuals. The Nation as embodied in the State is an organism, with head and members; Society is an unorganized mass of individuals. The Nation has a legal personality (ist eine Rechtsperson), Society has no collective personality, but only consists of a mass of private persons. The Nation is endowed with unity of will, and the power to make its will actual in the State. Society has no collective will, and no political power of its own. Society can neither legislate nor govern, nor administer justice. It has only a public opinion, and exercises an indirect influence on the organs of the State, according to the views, interests, and demands of many or all of its members. The Nation is a political idea: Society is only the shifting association of private persons within the domain of the State. (Bluntschli, p. 98)

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