ABSTRACT
A constitutional order may be described by the unique claim it makes on legitimate power. Thus the order of princely states, which flourished in the sixteenth century, demanded power on the basis on the legitimacy of the princes with which it was associated. Give us power, the State said, and we will better protect the person and the possessions of the prince. The constitutional order within which most states lived for most of the twentieth century can also be characterized in a unique way. Nation-states, that is states that existed to serve national groups, asked for legitimacy on the basis of a characteristic claim: give us power, the State said, and we will improve your material well-being. The record of economic and material progress during the twentieth century amply justified this claim. Nevertheless, in the past decade, there has been an increasing recognition that we are entering the transition from one constitutional order to another.1
