PBILOSOPIDCAL VIEWS AND POLITICAL THEORY 217The theocratic and authoritarian implications of this approach can
be avoided only if very strong institutional safeguards are provided
like the estates and corporations with which the feudal medieval world
opposed the extreme claims of absolutism. But Speransky does not wish
to foster the development of classes or groups on the basis of interest.
This, he made clear in the Plan of 1809. The "class" of intermediaries.
for instance, is to have no material interests in opposition to or in-
dependently from those of the people at large. Anyway, the material
or economic character of the class plays an essentially subordinate role(in spite of the property qualifications for membership). It is not so
much wealth that matters for membership as the individual's spiritual
and moral preparation for the tasks of his class. He must belong to
the spiritual elite of the people, which alone possesses full consciousness
of the nation's destiny and moral needs. As the nation is an organic
unit, there can be no conflict between the interests of the elite and
those of the people. The state, i.e., the elite and the government,
therefore, becomes the most articulate caITier of the moral and spiritual
purposes of the nation. This role of carrier finds its manifestation in
the legal and administrative aspects of social life. The organic
character of the body politic finds its expression in the structure of
the government machinery. We have noted that all laws and political
institutions and the powers and functions of the state are organically
bound together; they do not keep each other in balance or check, as
in liberal representative regimes. Far from protecting the interests of
separate groups and individuals, the government subordinates ever-
ything to the moral and spiritual aspirations of the people, the organic
harmony of the nation. But it is the government again that expresses
these aspirations and plays the role of active leadership in developing
them and in guiding the steps of the people towards them. And who
can perform this function better than the autocratic Tsar (the leading
moral personality) when he is kept informed by the spiritual elite of
the nation?
Quite understandably, history, historical evolution and traditions
become very important features in the political and social life of the
nation. After all, history and tradition indicate and illustrate best the
spiritual, ethical, and religious aspirations of the people. They are
the most effective safeguards of an organic evolution. 1 As government
and laws are the expression of the spiritual aims of the people, they
must naturally evolve and change with the general development of
the spiritual and intellectual level of the people. When a lag occurs
1 "Pervyi politicheskii traktat," pp. 54, 56; Plan 1809, p. 16.