John R. Commons and the Democratic State
John R. Commons supported his reformist activities with a conception of the state that remains largely unexamined. General surveys of his work have treated some aspects of it; a few authors have remarked on the similarity between his interests and those of the public choice theorists [Ostrom 1976, pp. 850,853; Rutherford 1983, pp. 735-36].' Others have stressed differences in methodology [Field 1979, pp. 53, 61; Atkinson 1983, pp. 1060-64]. No one, however, has shown how the different methods imply different conceptions of the state, nor has anyone isolated, for specific examination and appraisal, the conception that Commons developed, even though he devoted two of his earliest major works to the problems of the democratic state. This article examines his conception of the state and suggests a preliminary appraisal. The examination and appraisal can be facilitated by a division of his conception into an evolutionary interaction of three related processes: first, a collective effort to control the use of violence as an incentive creates the state-a hierarchy of officials, each subject to some earthly authority; second, these officials control violence by enforcing rights and duties, necessarily "liberating and expanding" the