determined the real functions of the organs of government could not be reproduced. Yet this was not at first perceived; and although that particular fact has since become so well known as to be a commonplace, there is no good reason to assume that we have outgrown the blindness of those days. We are ever hearing men extol the virtues of some foreign political contrivance, without observing, often without stopping to inquire, what its actual mode of operation may be, or whether the functions of the organs at work may not in reality be quite different from what they appear.

Surely, enough has been said to point out the need at the present day of a greater study of the physiology of politics. If scientific methods are to have any considerable influence on public affairs in this country, if American scholarship is to achieve any marked advance in political science; it would seem to be essential that our Association should encourage more extensive research in political phenomena from this point of view.

486. Analysis of governmental functions. Willoughby classifies the functions of government under three general heads.1

First, those concerned with the Power of the State. Under this head are included, in very large measure, the essential functions, namely, those that concern the maintenance of order and the preservation of the State's political autonomy in the family of nations. In earlier times this was almost the sole conscious aim of the State. In those times when not only were its own citizens unaccustomed to order and obedience to law, but when between the States themselves there existed a pure struggle for existence unmitigated by principles of international morality, such was necessarily the case. It was therefore quite essential that the functions of the State for the maintenance of itself as a military power should dwarf, by their importance, the value of political and civic rights, and that therefore these latter should have been deemed of importance only in so far as they served to strengthen the power of the State..

At the present day, the relative importance of this aim in the State's life varies according to conditions and circumstances. In Europe it still plays a very prominent part, as seen in the energy expended in the maintenance of navies and enormous standing armies. Geographical situation and a law-abiding spirit of its citizens make it possible for the United States government to subordinate this aim to other and higher purposes. Nevertheless, while the enormous power of our State is thus

1 Copyright, 1896, by The Macmillan Company.

for the most part dormant, and is fully manifested only in times of imminent danger, it is none the less its most essential attribute.

The second aim of the State is, or should be, that of creating and maintaining the widest possible degree of Liberty. As already explained, this includes not only the perfection of its governmental machinery, whereby political liberty in the largest possible degree shall be secured, but also the guaranteeing to the individual of as wide a field as possible in which he shall have a freedom of action, protected at once from arbitrary governmental interference and private molestation. At the same time, as a corollary from this, the action of the State should be so directed as to render its citizens progressively more capable of exercising this freedom. Under this head are included, therefore, all possible efforts to improve the State's method of organization and administration, to remove selfish and class interests from the administration of public affairs, and thus to render possible not only the formulation of an intelligent public opinion, but a realization of those aims that this opinion discloses when so formulated.

Thirdly, and finally, there are those functions of the State, that, apart from any considerations of power or maintenance of individual liberty, tend by their exercise to promote the General Welfare, either economically, intellectually, or morally.

487. Classification of state functions. Garner makes also a threefold classification of governmental functions, but from a different point of view.

The functions of the state have been classified by many writers as: first, those which are necessary and indispensable; and, second, those which are optional; or, simply those which are essential and those which are nonessential; or, again, those which are socialistic and those which are not. They may be classified more exactly as: first, those which are necessary; second, those which are natural or normal but not necessary; and, third, those which are neither natural nor necessary, but which in fact are often performed by modern states. . . . What are called the essential, normal, or constituent functions are such as all governments must perform in order to justify their existence. They include the maintenance of internal peace, order, and safety, the protection of persons and property, and the preservation of external security. They are the original primary functions of the state, and all states, however rudimentary and undeveloped, attempt to perform them. They embrace the larger part of the activities of the state and have to do principally with the conservation of society and only secondarily with social progress.

By natural but unnecessary functions are meant those which the state may leave unperformed or unregulated without abandoning a primary duty or exposing itself to the dangers of anarchy, but which would be neglected or at least not so well performed by private enterprise. Among such functions may be mentioned . . . the conduct of various undertakings which would be unprofitable as private ventures but which are required by the common interest.

Among the activities of the state which are neither essential nor natural, but which are not a matter of indifference to the public and which are performed by some states as well as by private enterprise and at less cost, are a great variety of services mainly economic and intellectual. . . . Under this head also may be included a great volume of regulatory or restrictive legislation dealing with the conduct of certain trades and occupations which are affected with a public interest.

II. ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

488. Essential functions of the state. Willoughby introduces his discussion of the essential functions of the state with the following paragraphs: 1

The fact that the exercise of a power by a State is, pro tanto, a limitation of the freedom of action of the individual, necessarily brings the interests of the two into frequent opposition, and, in each particular instance, the question resolves itself into the proper balancing of them.

It is admitted by all that the State should possess powers sufficiently extensive for the maintenance of its own continued existence against foreign interference, to provide the means whereby its national life may be preserved and developed, and to maintain internal order, including the protection of life, liberty, and property. These have been designated the essential functions of the State, and are such as must be possessed by a State, whatever its form.

The particularity with which it is necessary that the control of the State should be exercised in regard to these essential matters, and especially in regard to those that have to do with the definition and protection of private rights, is largely determined by the character of the people governed, and by their state of civilization.

489. The constituent functions. The essential, or, as Wilson calls them, the constituent, functions of the state may be itemized as follows:

1 Copyright, 1896, by The Macmillan Company.

(1) The keeping of order and providing for the protection of persons and property from violence and robbery.

(2) The fixing of the legal relations between man and wife and between parents and children.

(3) The regulation of the holding, transmission, and interchange of property, and the determination of its liabilities for debt or for crime. (4) The determination of contract rights between individuals. (5) The definition and punishment of crime.

(6) The administration of justice in civil causes.

(7) The determination of the political duties, privileges, and relations of citizens.

(8) Dealings of the state with foreign powers: the preservation of the state from external danger or encroachment and the advancement of its international interests.

490. Sovereignty and the essential powers. Dealey points out that certain functions of the state follow naturally from the very nature of its sovereignty.

From the consideration of sovereignty itself we may now pass to the application of it in the various aspects of national life, first outlining in a general way the relation of sovereignty to the essential powers of the state.

The authority of the state in respect to the protection of life and property is often discussed under several terms, such as the war power, the police power or the power to preserve the peace of the state. But whatever name may be applied to such manifestations of supremacy, whether exerted in carrying on war, in suppressing riots and rebellion or in checking crime, it is but another name for sovereignty, which is the collective term for whatever power is possessed by the state. Certain aspects of sovereign power, however, are so important in themselves that it is customary to speak of sovereignty as though made up of three essential powers, namely, the police power, including the war power, the power of taxation, and the power of eminent domain. By police power is meant the power of the state to do anything needful for the safety and welfare of the nation. The power of taxation implies that the state may take from its subjects the services and property necessary for its support. The power of eminent domain implies that the state has the right to take from its subjects their lands or property for public use. In all states that have developed along democratic lines these powers are constitutionally safeguarded, so as to secure the people against governmental tyranny; but in practice it is understood that such restrictions are for times of

peace. When necessity arises, the riot act is read or martial law proclaimed, civil and constitutional guaranties, like habeas corpus, are suspended, and the government, in the exercise of the so-called war or police power, takes into its hands the full power of sovereignty on the plea that, inter arma leges silent.

491. Theory of state taxation. The general nature of the reasons for taxation, distinguishing between activities conferring common benefit and those conferring special benefit, may be briefly stated as follows:

The various activities of the State can be easily classified, according to the degree of common or special benefit they are supposed to confer upon the citizens, or taxpayers. The various groups shade into one another, of course. But the extremes are perfectly clear and fundamentally different. Thus, it is universally admitted that the functions. of the general administrative and legislative departments are of such a character as to give a common benefit, for which, ideally, every one should pay according to some scheme of supposed equality. But at the other extreme there are many things done by the State which confer so special a benefit as to justify a special charge. For example, when the State carries a passenger or a box of freight over its railroad, or carries a letter, or provides the citizens with china or tobacco, it confers a special benefit. Between these two extremes there are any number of grades, according as the predominant thought is that of common or special benefit, when both ideas are present. But there is one more consideration that must be introduced. There are a certain number of State activities which it is in the interest of the whole to have performed, but which accrue to the special benefit of certain classes, who on account of poverty are unable to pay for that benefit; and if the State is to perform these functions, it must call upon the other classes for assistance, excusing the poorer. Theoretically, the support of the poor and defective classes is an activity conferring a common benefit upon all the other members of society, and hence they are called upon to contribute accordingly. If we consider it the moral duty of society as a whole to help the weak, then the relief of the poor confers a common benefit. It is the same if we look upon poor relief from a less altruistic point of view, and consider that society is merely protecting its own interest, as, for example, in isolating the feeble-minded, so that they shall not propagate their weakness.

1 Copyright, 1896, by The Macmillan Company,