The national principle, that is, which is precisely the principle of loyal and fruitful political association, depends for its vitality upon the establishment and maintenance of a constructive relation between the official political organization and policy and the interests, the ideas, and the traditions of the people as a whole.

The nations of Europe, much as they suffered from the French Revolution and disliked it, owe to the insurgent French democracy their effective instruction in this political truth.
It follows, however, that there is no universal and perfect machinery whereby loyal and fruitful national association can be secured.

The nations of Europe originated in local political groups, each of which possessed its own peculiar interests, institutions, and traditions.
Their power of fruitful national association depended more upon loyalty to their particular local political tradition and habits than upon any ideal perfection in their new and experimental machinery for distributing political responsibility and securing popular representation.

A national policy and organization is, consequently, essentially particular; and, what is equally important, its particular character is partly determined by the similarly special character of the policy and organization of the surrounding states.

The historical process in which each of the European nations originated included, as an essential element, the action and reaction of these particular states one upon the other.