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Article: The anarchical order of power. (reprinted from an essay in Britannica Perspectives)(The Quest for World Order)
- Article from:
- Daedalus
- Article date:
- June 22, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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MEN CONTINUE TO BELONG TO political units pretending to independence. Hence, there is no "planetary society" or "human society" comparable to Pueblo or French society, or to the society of the United States or the Soviet Union.
The examples just given intentionally illustrate the diversity of the "political units" or "societies" of which the state claims to be the sovereign expression. A historian of the school of Spengler or Toynbee would contrast "national societies," naively proud of their originality, with the "intelligible field" that makes up a whole "civilization," such as ancient civilization or Western Christian civilization.(*) An ethnologist would reply ...