ABSTRACT
State and Society, are naturally and continuously in opposition. For that reason, human welfare demands the nicest balance between the appropriate functions of each. The State, to be a State, must have a constitution. The interlocking relationship between Society and State is indicated by the fact that practically all social organizations—religious, commercial, or merely recreational—also have constitutions. In most countries the State has evolved slowly, acquiring its power through numerous structural changes before taking form as the Nation-State that came to flower in the period following the French Revolution. In the American Republic, however, the federal State was created at a given moment, by a concentrated effort of mind and will. It is necessary to understand how the State has everywhere weakened Society, and how that process has in turn weakened the State, before one can intelligently consider the magnitude of the struggle between the American Republic and its Russian antagonist.
