The Legal Expression Of Reason Of State In Modern State-building

The reason of state is the internal spirit of each modern state as a political entity,which regards its persistence and development as the ultimate well-being. The reasonof state impenetrate the whole process of modern state building. It presages andguides the building of modern state, as well as reshapes, updates and consummateitself in the process. The reason of state in the building of modern state refers to theadvancing of modern state building in the legal level in the guidance of the reason ofstate. To put it another way, it’s also the process of state founding and administeringby the rule of law.With the assistance of what Marx Weber calls “ideal type”, I suggest that thereare three typical forms of modern state, i.e., absolutist state, constitutional state andliberal democratic state. The legal expression of the reason of state abides by aparticular set of regime in each type of process. The set of regime is embodied as theshaping of national identity, the creation of mode of rule and the construction of lifeimage. Specifically, in the process of strengthening monarchy power, the inhabitant isshaped as “subject”, the mode of rule is administrative, and the life image for thesubject is that “the monarch is the guardian of honor”. Maintaining the prosperity ofindustrial economy is the ultimate goal for constitutional state, and the nationalidentity it entails is “citizen”----the free agent in market. The main mode of rule inthis type of state is constitutional-civil code while the life image for citizen is that“the male is the monarch in family”. Proceeding to the liberal democratic state, socialwelfare, economic security and democratization becomes main theme of the time.Accordingly, the mode of rule undergoes drastic adjustment. The correspondingnational identity is “citizen”. the rule of mode is social law, and the life image is that“each individual is his own king”.Inherent in the legal expression of the reason of state in the process of modernstate building are two cues, one explicit and another implicit. The explicit cue is the logic of the reason of state, which means that modern state implement its sovereigntyby shaping its legal system on the basis of the necessity of reason; and the implicitcue is the logical of the reason of law, which means that meanwhile modern stateitself is reshaped by the reason of law. In the nexus of the two cues, the historical andsocial essence of the legal expression os revealed, that is, the process of thetwo-way shaping between the reason of state and the reason of law. And the historicalprocess is embodied in dual aspect, one is the relationship between legitimacy andjustification, another is the relationship between political necessity and moral virtue.