ABSTRACT
The State is the supreme coercive power in any given political society. It lays down the ultimate rules of behaviour which govern the relations of men. Maximum welfare in a society of slave-owners is not conceived as one in which the slave-view of welfare is entitled to count. Maximum welfare in a feudal society is determined by the view of the owners of land about its character. The uniformity of outlook necessary if the judicial function is to be performed in a manner which protects the State-purpose is secured by even more drastic provisions than elsewhere in post-Hitler Germany. In every State supreme coercive authority is used to further those relations implied in the prevalent conception of the common welfare. If it is a slave-owning society, the relations it will further are those which enable the slave-owners to exact the maximum benefit from their possession of slaves.
