We have now in our toolkit the seminal elements of politics: conflict, power (along with force), legitimacy and obligation. Let us imagine we connect these single pieces with each other, feed them into an engine and set it in motion. What comes out? What are the main results of political life, when seen in its own dynamics?
Chapter 3 will deal with its main result, political order, and look into the several models of order that have come up in the history of political thought. Chapter 4 will go down a further step on the staircase leading from abstract categories to concrete forms and focus on the paramount political institution, the state. The most widespread and ambitious form government has taken – really or nominally – in the last century or so, democracy, will draw most of our attention in Chapter 5.