131214840-Carl-Schmitt

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Appendix:
On the Ideology of Parliamentarism (1925)
Richard Thoma
The practical influence on politics which the ideological justification for any state form or
governmental type exercises should surely not be exaggerated. It is always present to some
extent in politics—even Marxist theory does not deny that—and under certain circumstances
ideology can be a very important factor in historical events. Ideologists on the other hand are
embedded in the general development of intellectual life, swept along and transformed by its
currents. For that reason it is always imperative when investigating the contemporary
circumstances and developmental possibilities of constitutional politics in Europe not to
analyze the various ideologies of our times in isolation, drawing conclusions about their
strength and vitality from the place they hold in intellectual history; this is especially true of
the literary justifications for democracy, hereditary monarchy, parliamentarism, the
dictatorship of the proletariat, the dictatorship of the strong man (whether justified by
nationalism, cultural politics, or economiceudaemonist considerations). In a very remarkable
recent study by Carl Schmitt, professor of law and political science in Bonn, the ideological
justifications for parliament and parliamentary government, the rationalist Marxist
dictatorship, and the irrationalist dictatorship recommended by syndicalism that is currently
being tested by Italian
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