There are empires due to conquest where political rule exists only in forced levies of taxes and soldiers, and in which, though the word state may be used, the characteristic signs of a public are notable for their absence.
Dewey critiques the nature of political power in empires that lack genuine public engagement.
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There was no logic which rendered necessary the appeal to the individual as an independent and isolated being.
Freedom presented itself as an end in itself, though it signified in fact liberation from oppression and tradition.
What he believes, hopes for and aims at is the outcome of association and intercourse.
Nor can the liberating and confirming results of public action be construed to yield a wholesale idealization of states in contrast with other associations.