The People’s Republic: Constitutional basis

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

AS time went on, however, someone must have emerged who combined leadership in war with sagacity and wisdom in civil administration. Such a person might have emerged from among his own victorious people, or as a foreigner amongst a defeated and conquered community with which he was completely assimilated in due process of time. (The dynasty of a conqueror which failed to assimilate would perforce be overthrown, sooner or later.) Whichever is the case, it was the person who combined the aforementioned qualities who automatically became the permanent leader or king. Whether or not his qualities and talents

were substantially transmitted to his descendants as was, by the law of heredity, sometimes the case, these blood heirs in their turn were usually proclaimed leaders or kings and made to succeed to the position which their ancestor had originally won by distinguished personal merits.

In this connection, it must be pointed out in passing that history is replete with instances where this heritage has been flagrantly abused by unworthy successors. They did not hesitate to exploit, for their own selfish benefits and aggrandisement, the trustfulness, weakness, and dependence of those under their charge, even to the extent of enslaving them. It is these unworthy successors that have

given birth to political monstrosities like absolute monarchy, despotism, tyranny, and feudalism.

Apart from constant preparedness to wage war, they also employed every device and artifice to win the friendship of their

neighbours. Marriage contracts were sometimes promoted between families, and between the ruling and influential classes in neighbouring family aggregations. In addition, a person who was known to be adroit in negotiation, and persuasive of tongue, was, when necessary, sent from one family unit or aggregation to another to ensure good and peaceable neighbourliness between them. Such a person used to be known as envoy or emissary: he is now known as Ambassador. Furthermore, there are times when this envoy or emissary secretly fomented trouble in a hostile neighbouring territory in order to divert the attention of the people of that territory to their own internal disorder, and thereby nullify or reduce the capacity or propensity of such people to make war, at least for the present.

The civil administration—and of course there was very little to administer—was completely vested in the patresfamiliarum

with a leader or king at their head. They were aided in their task by the forces of fear, superstition, and taboo, and by the injunctions and dictates of the Oracle which must be obeyed. Black magic also played a part in bolstering up the administration by the patresfamiliarum. For instance, fear, superstition, and taboo helped considerably in the prevention of crime; and many a dispute, however bitter and acrimonious, was finally settled by the arbitration of the Oracle.

However, as time went on—as the society grew in size, and stranger elements lived in it; as families multiplied and became more and more remote from their original stocks, and the patresfamiliarum thus increased in number; and as it dawned more and more on people that it was much more profitable for them to employ their time on occupations of their own choosing and pay contributions in cash or kind from their earnings so as to enable the State to employ some people full-time in its service instead of all citizens rendering part-time voluntary services directly to the State—it became necessary to replace all the voluntary haphazard institutions which we have noted with formally organized and regular ones. In other words, some people were, in the course of the evolution of this union among families, later employed full-time as policemen, members of the armed forces, Judges, administrators, Civil Servants, etc., and were paid as such for their services, whilst all contributed something from their earnings

towards the maintenance of these regular full-time functionaries.

It will be seen, therefore, that it was the passionate desire for peace amongst them, and for mutual defence or protection against those outside their union, as well as for the procurement of economic benefits, which led to the emergence of, first, the village-states, then the city-states, followed by the nation-states or multi-nation States. This same passionate desire for peace, collective security, and mutual benefits in all facets of human endeavour is today the strong propelling force behind the unceasing efforts of some world leaders to bring about the existence of a world-state, in which the fear of external foes would be a thing of the forgotten past, and in which there would be a permanent assurance of internal order and economic prosperity for all the members of the world-state.

CONTINUES NEXT WEEK

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