Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/567

 A SO CIOL O GICA L VIE W OF SO VEREIG NTY 551

well or a little better disciplined, ready to overwhelm it and cap ture its territory and subsistence. If this be true, then it is only in the lulls of competition or in the completed and victorious monopoly that the ethical appeal can be made. This is doubly true of that customary period which culminated in absolutism, where survival of the fittest necessitated the survival of the strongest and largest organization. It is also true in the reflect- ive period, where, although doctrines of moral right were enlisted in the strife for participation in sovereignty, yet these doc- trines lodged in the mass of the people rather as a stimulus to strife than a devotion to right. But when struggle ended in centralization, when strife ended in sovereign partnership, then the claims of ethics could be heard and obeyed. The psychic basis of this fact is the same as that which we have found in private property, namely, that coercion is the means for executing the mere wish or opinion of the proprietor. It compels obedi- ence, and therefore need not rely upon knowledge, skill, or tact. The character of the commands imposed are simply the outward expression of the moral character of him who commands. The same is true of the state's commands. They express the moral character of those who participate in sovereignty. But this partnership must first be compulsorily acquired and guaranteed in the very constitution of the state. In this process all other qualities are mere instruments of might. Force can be met only with force. But when acquired, then the moral character of the sovereign can show itself, whether he be a mere sensualist and demander of pleasure, or a conscientious dispenser of justice and right in the use of his coercive power. It is the beliefs of the sovereign concerning right which shape his sovereign will. The ethical appeal to him is in effect an appeal to use his property in such a way as to promote the highest good of self and of others, i. e., to command the services of others rightly instead of wrongly.

But, unfortunately, the human will unchecked is capricious, self-seeking, oppressive. During the period of competition it is checked by its own weakness. In the period of absolutism only the personal character of the chance ruler determines the ethical