Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answer to this item should be based on the passage only.

"Where there is no common power to hold all in awe, there is no law, and where there is no law, no injustice; the very words just and unjust have no real place until a sovereign authority exists to make agreements binding. It is the commonwealth, not any private conscience, that first gives these words their force."

Which one of the following statements best reflects the central idea of the passage given above?