131214840-Carl-Schmitt

Page 48
party cannot exist without an opposite party, that only the prince and civil servants (and these
as such, not as private persons) are prohibited from membership in a party, because the state
and its organs exist above the parties. "Constitutional law does not recognize parties; the
calm and settled organization of the state is the common, firm order for everything, and it
limits party business and party struggle. . . . Only if the movement of a new free life starts
when politics begins do the parties appear." The parties are for him (following Rohmer)
analogous to various stages of life. One also finds here a conception that Lorenz von Stein
developed in its classic form: that contradictions belong to the life of the state just as they do
to individual lives, and that these constitute the dynamic of something really living. 46
On this point liberal thought merges with a specifically German organic theory and
overcomes the mechanical conception of balance. But one could still hold onto the idea of
parliamentarism with the help of this organic theory. As soon as there is a demand for
parliamentary government, such as Mohl's, the idea of parliamentarism finds itself in a crisis
because the perspective of a dialectic-dynamic process of discussion can certainly be applied
to the legislative but scarcely to the executive. Only a universally applicable law, not a
concrete order, can unite truth and justice through the balance of negotiations and public
discussion. The old conception of parliament remained secure in these conclusions even in
particular points, without their systematic interdependence being made clear. Bluntschli, for
example, set out as an essential characteristic of modern parliament that it should not
conclude its business in committees as the old corporative assembly had done. 47 That is
completely correct; but this conclusion is derived from principles of openness and discussion
that were no longer current.
5—
The General Meaning of the Belief in Discussion
Openness and discussion are the two principles on which constitutional thought and
parliamentarism depend in a thoroughly logical and com-
Create PDF with PDF4U. If you wish to remove this line, please click here to purchase the full version