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81 Pol. Sci. Q. 1 (1966)

handle is hein.journals/pclscceqry81 and id is 1 raw text is: Private Man and Society OTTO KIRCHHEIMER Columbia University Der wirkliche Mensch ist der Privatmensch der jet- zigen Staatsverfassung. mARx, Kritik der Hegelschen Staatsphilosophie. &o How does the individual acquire the capacity to participate in the general affairs of the state? How does it become possible for all citizens to approach public affairs, not as particular individuals, but in such a manner that their assembled particular wills embrace the state as their common affair? THE MIRAGE OF CONSENSUS This alpha and omega of democratic theory would lose its explosive power if we substitute a theory of consensus for concentration on the difficulties of the individual in his capacity as a fundamental constituent of the state. Were we to hypothesize something like a national consensus, sometimes swelling to a mighty chorus, some- times running underground, but always strong enough to drown out or interpose itself between the thousand individual conflict situations between the rich and the poor, the mighty and the small, we would not need to bother about the riddle of the common will. The individuals spontaneously at one with the state on their most vital common concerns may safely leave to the executive ranks the details of policy. But theorems of the nation as fundamentally one, despite their frequent use, have a fragile existence. In the face of reli- gious, nationality, economic, and ideological cleavages they often are forced to beat a retreat in favor of more pragmatic tests. Volume LXXXI March 1966 Number 1

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