ABSTRACT
This book seeks out best philosophic justification of the state which has, exercised, in the last century, the main influence upon Western civilization. It examines that justification in the light of the states we encounter in our daily lives. This will lead to a formulation of a theory of the state more related to the facts we know than that which is commonly accepted at the present time. In the light of that formulation, the chapter draws some practical inferences by which we may predict—since prediction is the ultimate test of a true social theory—the probable course of events in the future. The chapter assumes that the justification of coercive authority, the only title upon which it can claim the obedience of those over whom it is exercised, is in the measure of its satisfaction of maximum demand.
