Sentence:  When the power of the <WSD>latter</WSD> was made both limited and explicit - when norms were clarified and made more precise and the creation of new norms was placed exclusively in parliamentary hands - two purposes were served : Government was made subservient to an institutionalized popular will , and law became a rational system for implementing that will , for serving conscious goals , for embodying the `` public policy '' . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  referring to the second of two things or persons mentioned (or the last one or ones of several)