The European modern state formation brought a revolutionary change
in the conception of the selves that constitute the collective body of the
state. Before what we can roughly call modernity, the relationship
between the "state" and the "individual" was personal, corporeal, and
contractual. The relationship between the king and his subjects was
dependent upon personal or contractual loyalty under the auspices of the
Lovejoyean "great chain of beings." In the modern conception of the
state, such a relationship radically changes. The personal, corporeal,
contractual relationships were severed, while the "individuals"
irrevocably became the object of government. The citizens are not
defined by their rela
