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.The corporation is a group ofpeople sharing the same trade or profession, officially recognizedby the state though independent of it.Like the medieval guilds, onwhich it is clearly modeled, the corporation would organize, sup-port and recognize all individuals who had become competent intheir trade or profession (§252).It would address the problem ofsocial alienation since it would become the individual s secondfamily , aiding him in times of need and providing him with asense of belonging.And it would address the problem of politicalalienation, because it would organize and represent the interests ofthe individual in the Estates Assembly.THE STRUCTURE AND POWERS OF THE STATEIn the Philosophy of Right (§§283 329), Hegel provides a detailedtheory of the structure of his ideal state.The central thesis ofHegel s theory is that the rational form of the state is a constitutionalmonarchy (§273R; H 238).Prima facie such a claim seems reactionary,and it has been interpreted along just these lines.20 However, in theearly 1800s such a claim was standard reformist doctrine.It was theview of the Hanoverian Whigs and the Prussian Reformers, indeedof all those who wanted to reform the state of the ancien régime from 252 Hegelabove so that it could adapt to the revolutionary currents of the age.This reformist faith in constitutional monarchy has to be contrastedagainst the reactionary defense of absolute monarchy, which attemptedto free the monarch from constitutional safeguards and makehis will alone the source of law.The main Prussian spokesmanfor absolute monarchy was K.L.von Haller, whose Restaurations derStaats-Wissenschaft (Restoration of State Science) became the chiefmanifesto of the reactionary cause.Hegel s distance from thereactionary cause is evident not least from his lengthy polemicalbroadsides against Haller in the Philosophy of Right (§§219R, 258R).Still, Hegel s strong claim in behalf of constitutional monarchy issomewhat surprising, given that he disdains disputes about theideal constitution, and given that he endorses Montesquieu s doc-trine that the proper constitution for a nation depends on its spe-cific culture, history, climate and geography (§§3R, 273R).Hegeldoes not simply hold that constitutional monarchy is the best con-stitution for Prussia, or that it alone is suitable for its stage ofhistorical development.Rather, he maintains that constitutionalmonarchy is the rational form of the state because it, more than anyother form of government, realizes the ideal of freedom (H 238).Hegel s claim becomes more comprehensible when we considerhis view, expressed most clearly in his Heidelberg lectures, thatconstitutional monarchy alone guarantees the rights of individual-ity so characteristic of the modern world (VNS §§135R, 137R).Like Kant, Humboldt, Jacobi, Schiller and many others, Hegelfeared that radical democracy, which gave limitless power to thewill of the people, does not necessarily respect the fundamentalrights of everyone alike.The crucial case in point was Athens spersecution of Socrates.The great strength of constitutional monarchy for Hegel is that itis a mixed constitution, incorporating the advantages of all threeforms of government.He maintains that constitutional monarchy isa synthesis of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy (§273R).Aconstitutional monarchy consists in three fundamental powers: the Hegel s Theory of the State 253sovereign, which formally enacts the laws; the executive, which appliesand enforces the laws; and the legislative, which creates the laws(§273).Since the sovereign is one individual, since the executiveconsists in several individuals, and since the legislative consists inmany individuals, each power represents one form of government:monarchy, aristocracy and democracy (respectively) (§273R).The main virtue of mixed government for Hegel resides in itsdivision of powers.Since this prevents any single power fromdominating others, it provides the best institutional guarantee forfreedom.In this regard it is noteworthy that Hegel reaffirmedMontesquieu s famous doctrine of the division of powers because, understood in its true sense, [it] could rightly be regarded as theguarantee of public freedom (§272R).While Hegel warns thatan extreme separation of powers will undermine the unity of thestate (§§272R, 300A), he still thinks that the modern state real-izes freedom only if it involves a differentiation of functionand separation into distinct spheres of government (VNS §132;H 231).Hegel makes a much more systematic or metaphysical claim inbehalf of constitutional monarchy: that it alone realizes the veryidea of the state (§§272 3).Each power of constitutional mon-archy represents one of the moments of the concept: since it enactsgeneral laws, the legislative is universality; since it applies laws tospecific cases, the executive is particularity; and since it is incorpor-ates in a single person both the legislative and executive, themonarch is individuality
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