Legality and Legitimacy

First English-language translation of one of Schmitt's major works, providing a missing link in the oeuvre of this influential and controversial political theorist Carl Schmitt ranks among the most original and controversial political thinkers of the twentieth century. His incisive criticisms of Enlightenment political thought and liberal political practice remain as shocking and influential today as when they first appeared in Weimar Germany. Unavailable in English until now, Legality and Legitimacy was composed in 1932, in the midst of the crisis that would lead to the collapse of the Weimar Republic and only a matter of months before Schmitt's collaboration with the Nazis. In this important work, Schmitt questions the political viability of liberal constitutionalism, parliamentary government, and the rule of law. Liberal governments, he argues, cannot respond effectively to challenges by radical groups like the Nazis or Communists. Only a presidential regime subject to few, if any, practical limitations can ensure domestic security in a highly pluralistic society. Legality and Legitimacy is sure to provide a compelling reference point in contemporary debates over the challenges facing constitutional democracies today. John P. McCormick's introduction places Legality and Legitimacy in its historical context, clarifies some of the intricacies of the argument, and ultimately contests Schmitt's claims regarding the inherent weakness of parliamentarianism, constitutionalism, and the rule of law.

Table of Contents:
Translator’s Preface / Jeffrey Seitzer ix Identifying or Exploiting the Paradoxes of Constitutional Democracy? An Introduction to Carl Schmitt’s Legality and Legitimacy JOHN P. McCORMICK xiii Legality and Legitimacy Introduction: The Legislative State System of Legality Compared to Other State Types (Jurisdiction, Governmnetal, and Administrative States) / John P. McCormick 3 I: The System of the Legality of the Parliaamentary Legislative State 1. The Legislative State and the Concept of Law 17 2. Legality and the Equal Chance for Achieving Political Power 27 II: The Three Extraordinary Lawgivers of the Weimar Constitution 3. The Extraordinary Lawgiver Ratione Materiae: The Second Principal Part of the Weimar Constitution and a Second Constitution 39 4. The Extraordinary Lawgiver Ratione Supremitatis: Actual Meaning - Plebiscitary Legitimacy instead of Lgislative State Legality 59 5. The Extraordinary Lawgiver Ratione Necessitatis: Actual Meaning - The Administrative State Measure Displaces the Parliamentary Legislative State Statute 67 Conclusion 85 Afterword (1958) 95 Appendix: Selected Articles of the Weimar Constitution 103 Notes 109 Works Cited by Carl Schmitt in Legality and Legitimacy 161 Index 165

About the Author :
Carl Schmitt (1888–1985) was a leading German political and legal theorist. Among his many books are The Idea of Representation, The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy, Political Romanticism, and The Concept of the Political. Jeffrey Seitzer is the author of Comparative History and Legal Theory: Carl Schmitt in the First German Democracy. John P. McCormick is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Carl Schmitt’s Critique of Liberalism and editor of Confronting Mass Democracy and Industrial Technology, published by Duke University Press. Carl Schmitt (1888–1985) was a leading German political and legal theorist. Among his many books are The Idea of Representation, The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy, Political Romanticism, and The Concept of the Political. Jeffrey Seitzer is the author of Comparative History and Legal Theory: Carl Schmitt in the First German Democracy. John P. McCormick is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Carl Schmitt’s Critique of Liberalism and editor of Confronting Mass Democracy and Industrial Technology, published by Duke University Press.

Review :
"Carl Schmitt is an unorthodox classic. One of the intellectual grave-diggers of the Weimar Republic, he wrote this brilliant book in the middle of the political crisis, opting for presidential dictatorship. Excellent in its analysis, Legality and Legitimacy is unwise regarding political consequences and without a realistic political vision for the future. This first English-language translation should stimulate European-American dialogue about the vitality of democratic institutions in view of the challenges of antidemocratic and anti-liberal temptations."--Michael Stolleis, University of Frankfurt "An English translation of Carl Schmitt's Legalitat und Legitimitat is long overdue. Legality and Legitimacy concludes the critique of legal positivism and the rationality of statute law he began in The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy and Political Theology and does so in the historical context of Weimar's final crisis. It was an important argument at the time and is just as significant seventy-odd years later."--Ellen Kennedy, author of Constitutional Failure: Carl Schmitt in Weimar "The concept of political legitimacy as a stabilizing force is central to the book's theme and is particularly important in a pluralist democracy such as the United States, where constituents regularly lodge competing demands, thereby placing stresses upon the political system. The authors seek to measure, through a series of extended surveys and intricate statistical analysis, the one institution of government that most effectively regulates pluralist conflicts and rallies support for the regime. They then conclude that relative to other institutions, the Supreme Court has the greatest capacity to legitimize policies. Recommended." Library Journal, 1st December 2008