ABSTRACT

The state in the sense of the rational state has existed only in the western world. Under the old regime in China a thin stratum of so-called officials, the mandarins, existed above the unbroken power of the clans and commercial and industrial guilds. Very different is the rational state in which alone modern capitalism can flourish. Its basis is an expert officialdom and rational law. The rational law of the modern occidental state, on the basis of the trained official renders his decisions, arose on its formal side, though not as to its content, out of Roman law. Under Justinian the Byzantine bureaucracy brought order and system into rational law, in consequence of the natural interest of the official in a law which would be systematic and fixed and hence easier to learn. In the revival of the Roman law has been seen the basis for the downfall of the peasant class, as well as for the development of capitalism.