Strauss, Danie2017-10-092017-10-092010Strauss, D. (2010). The reformational legacy within political theory. Journal for Contemporary History, 35(2), 1-19.0258-2442 (print)2415-0509 (online)http://hdl.handle.net/11660/7223Political theory in the West continued to suffer from the disturbing one-sidedness of atomistic (individualistic) and holistic (universalistic) orientations precluding a proper understanding of the nature of a differentiated society and the place of the state as a public legal institution within it. In this contribution attention is asked for the theoretical legacy within which Prof. Daan Wessels pursued his teaching, research and public performances. Traditional theories of the state never succeeded in delimiting the competency of the state because they did not proceed from an understanding of the sphere-sovereignty of the jural aspect of reality that serves as the guiding or qualifying function of the state as a public legal institution, having its foundation within the cultural-historical aspect of reality.enPolitical theoryConstitutional stateRule of lawState as a public legal institutionArticleFaculty of Humanities, University of the Free State