Synopsis
Schmitt argues that parliamentarism's founding ideals of open debate and reasoned compromise have collapsed, leaving its institutions hollow and vulnerable.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted workParliament was justified by faith in public discussion producing truth, but once politics becomes the clash of organized interests that faith is dead and the institution is a fiction.
It exposes the gap between liberal parliamentarism's self-image and the mass-party reality that drained it of legitimacy.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with Hans Kelsen, The Essence and Value of Democracy.
Reading note
Read critically, aware Schmitt's diagnosis served his hostility to liberalism and later the Nazi state.
Best paired with
Hans Kelsen, The Essence and Value of Democracy