Why did Hegel reject both unlimited individual freedom and total political centralization?

G.W.F. Hegel rejected both unlimited individual freedom and total political centralization because he sought to overcome the perceived failures of modern society, which he viewed as split between isolated, self-interested subjects and the threat of anarchy.12

Hegel criticized the modern emphasis on absolute individual liberty—often associated with bourgeois society and Kantian moral autonomy—as a form of willfulness that leads to a competitive "war of all against all". He believed that when individual rights are treated as absolute, they invite social fragmentation and anarchy, which inevitably result in despotic, tyrannical responses to restore order.1

Conversely, Hegel rejected total political centralization that ignores the individual. Instead, he proposed the state as an "organic community" that reconciles these antagonisms. In this framework, the individual’s identity is realized through their participation in the community, much like a limb is part of a body. By grounding the state in rational principles rather than mere force, Hegel aimed to create a system where citizens freely align their interests with the common good, thereby achieving a synthesis of modern individual conscience and communal harmony.12