ABSTRACT
Aristotle wrote that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is a political animal, meaning that the state is necessary to his satisfactory existence. The state in the world of other states is restrained by all manner of limitations upon its exercise of power. The state, looked at from within, has its activities subjected also to many restraints. The assertion that special sanctity attaches to the state was first based on theology and it has always kept traces of its origin. The tragic existence of hordes of refugees bears witness today to the incompleteness which any claims to exercise compulsion have in defining the character of the state. The fact surely is that while elements of compulsion enter into many associations, such, for instance, as a church, a party, or a trade union, they do not differ, except perhaps in degree, in the state when this is compared with other group formations.
