Can a constitutional democracy commit suicide? Can an illiberal
antidemocratic party legitimately obtain power through democratic
elections and amend liberalism and democracy out of the
constitution entirely? In Weimar Germany, these theoretical
questions were both practically and existentially relevant. By
1932, the Nazi and Communist parties combined held a majority of
seats in parliament. Neither accepted the legitimacy of liberal
democracy. Their only reason for participating democratically was
to amend the constitution out of existence. This book analyses Carl
Schmitt's state and constitutional theory and shows how it was
conceived in response to the Weimar crisis. Right-wing and
left-wing political extremists recognized that a path to legal
revolution lay in the Weimar constitution's combination of
democratic procedures, total neutrality toward political goals, and
positive law. Schmitt's writings sought to address the unique
problems posed by mass democracy. Schmitt's thought anticipated
'constrained' or 'militant' democracy, a type of constitution that
guards against subversive expressions of popular sovereignty and
whose mechanisms include the entrenchment of basic constitutional
commitments and party bans. Schmitt's state and constitutional
theory remains important: the problems he identified continue to
exist within liberal democratic states. Schmitt offers democrats
today a novel way to understand the legitimacy of liberal democracy
and the limits of constitutional change.
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