| Sumario: | The writer discusses the factors that make the transformation from ordered authority to state highly probable. He posits that the behavior of states can be best understood and predicted by imputing to them a single maximand—power—just as the behavior of the firms in general can be best predicted by assuming that they strive to maximize profit. He maintains that the point of a sovereign command is to have power that can be used at the discretion of the one wielding it. The writer elaborates on the machinery of maximization and considers inadvertent surrender. He concludes that, in a condition of perfect liberty, individuals will either abandon their freedom without realizing they are doing so or they will be made to do so by the foreign conquerors to which they yield, and states seems no more successful in consciously pursuing an objective.
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