Comments on: 271

By: Hegel (Simple)

Hegel (Simple) — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 10:59:35 +0000

§ 271: Inward and Outward

The constitution has two sides.

First, it orders the state within itself. The state distinguishes its parts and lets them exist. This is its inner life.

Second, the state is an individual among other states. It sets itself apart from them. Outwardly it acts as a unity. Its inner differences then step back.

Two powers:

The civil power works inward, the military power outward. Both must be in balance. Under the Roman emperors, everything rested on the military alone. In modern states the military comes from the citizens, when all citizens have a duty to bear arms.

Summary: The constitution orders the state inwardly and presents it outwardly as a unity. The civil and the military power must be in balance.

By: Karl Marx

Karl Marx — Wed, 05 Apr 1843 11:49:59 +0000

Addition: »The internal state as such is the civil power, the direction outward the military power, which, however, within the state is a determinate aspect within it itself.«

By: Eduard Gans (Additions)

Eduard Gans (Additions) — Wed, 29 May 1833 14:14:34 +0000

Just as irritability in the living organism is, on one side, something inward, belonging to the organism as such, so too here the relation outward is a direction toward inwardness. The inward state as such is civil power; the direction outward is military power, which, however, within the state is a determinate side of the state itself. That these two sides stand in equilibrium constitutes a principal matter in the disposition of the state. At times civil power is entirely extinguished and rests solely upon military power, as in the time of the Roman emperors and the praetorians; at times, as in modern periods, military power arises only out of civil power, when all citizens are liable to bear arms.