The Theory of the State

Johann Kaspar Bluntschli

This is one of those works from which an extract has been taken for the CUWS because one of our primary texts refers to the same, in this case Sidgwick's The Elements of Politics.

At present, all we need of this text is the Book V on ``The Ends of the State'' as this is the part that Sidgwick refers to in Part 1 of The Elements of Politics. In part 2, Sidgwick also references Book 6 on the ``Forms of the State''. That book may be added at a later date.

A Note on the Text

This extract from Bluntschli's The Theory of the State was digitized from the 1885 Oxford translation of the Allgemeines Statslehre, that translation having been made by several Oxford dons from the fifth edition (1875) of Bluntschli's work.

Table of Contents

Book V

The Ends of the State

Chapter I. The State an End or a Means. How far is it End or Means?

Chapter II. False Views of the End of the State

  1. That it is to maintain the ruling power.
  2. That it is to carry out the divine will.
  3. That it has to secure some external object.

Chapter III. Insufficient or Exaggerated Views of the End of the State

  1. That its end is to secure the rights of person and property.
  2. That its end is to secure general happiness.

Chapter IV. The True End of the State


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