The Idea of the state:
Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline (1827), § 536:
§ 536. The state is α) at first its inner, self-relating development, – the internal constitutional law or the constitution; it is β) a particular individual and thus in relation to other particular individuals, – the external constitutional law; γ) but these particular spirits are only moments in the development of the universal idea of spirit, – world history.
Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline (1830), § 536:
§ 536. The state is α) at first its inner configuration as self-relating development, – the internal constitutional law or the constitution; it is β) a particular individual, thus in relation to other particular individuals, – the external constitutional law; γ) but these particular spirits are only moments in the development of the universal idea of spirit in its actuality, – world history.
The state as actual is essentially an individual state, and, going further, also a particular state. Individuality is to be distinguished from particularity: it is a moment of the idea of the state itself, whereas particularity belongs to history. The states as such are independent of one another, and their relation can therefore only be an external one, so that there must be a third, connecting term above them. This third is now the spirit that gives itself actuality in world history and constitutes the absolute judge over them. Several states may indeed, as a league, form as it were a tribunal over others, and unions of states may occur, as for instance the Holy Alliance, but these are always only relative and limited, like perpetual peace. The sole absolute judge, who asserts himself always and against the particular, is the spirit that is in and for itself, which presents itself in world history as the universal and as the genus at work.
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