Hegel and the National Heritage

In Hegel's political theory the state is seen not only as an instrument of legal power, but also as the embodiment of a national heritage. Interestingly, theorists like Hobbes, Locke, and Bentham were able to talk of states and government as if they bore no relation to particular countries. A citizen's loyalty is, in fact, seldom to the state as an institution. Most people pledge and give their allegiance to the country of their birth …showed first 75 words of 3808 total…

…showed last 75 words of 3808 total…is applied, and on the situation of the men who are wont to invoke it. In this case, however, it is ideology rather than political theory: a rationalization for national power which seeks to grow more powerful or for incipient power which claims to represent a new political order. G.W.F. Hegel, Philosophy of History (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1991), translated by J. Sibree, p.53. Ibid., p.74 Ibid., pp. 52, 74. Ibid., p.74. Ibid., pp.74-75. Ibid., p.75.