131214840-Carl-Schmitt

an "equal chance" to come to power in the state because they were committed to
destroying the substance of the constitution. Cf. Joseph W. Bendersky, Carl Schmitt:
Theorist for the Reich (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), 144ff.
Page 96
17. Very informative on the democratic dialectic is Lorenz von Stein, Die socialistischen
und communistischen Bewegungen, 1848, Appendix, 25–26. [Schmitt refers to Stein's
appendices "Briefe über Frankreich." The argument of the fourth letter, "Die Kammer,"
clearly influenced Schmitt's conception of parliamentarism. Stein writes about the
French parliament in May 1848: "The lack of all real activity, all initiative, all
independent intervention, the slowness of its own movements even in important areas, as
for example the consideration of the constitutional recommendation, immediately
demonstrated to the independent observer that the dominant elements were no longer in
the chamber, but fought each other outside it." This state of parliamentary impotence,
Stein argues, proves that ''pure democracy and absolute democratic forms" were finished
in France; democracy "was powerless, and still is" because the first principle of
democracy is majority rule—but "the weakness of democracy lay in the fact that its own
principles [such as majority rule] forced it to serve interests that would eliminate
democracy's foundation, equality." See Lorenz von Stein, "Die socialistischen und
communistischen Bewegungen seit der dritten französischen Revolution," Appendix in
Stein's Socialismus und Communismus des heutigen Frankreichs (Leipzig: Wigand,
1848), 25–26. This issue was a persistent theme in Schmitt's work during the Republic;
cf. "Legalität und gleiche Chance politischer Machtgewinnung," in Legalität und
Legitimität. —tr.]
18. Charles Maurras, L'avenir de l'intelligence (Paris: Albert Fontemong, 1905, 2d
edition), 98.
19. [Tr.] The Holy Alliance was formed in 1815 as a defense against democratic and
revolutionary political movements in Europe after the French Revolution. It was based
on a charter of substantial political goals and a shared identity among member states as
Christian powers. By contrast the League of Nations had no such identity, as Schmitt's
remark notes.
20. [Tr.] Cf. Carl Schmitt, Die Kernfrage des Völkerbundes (Berlin: Ferdinand
Dümmler, 1926).
21. [Tr.] Cf. Schmitt's Politische Theologic (Munich & Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot,
1922).
2—
The Principles of Parliamentarism
1. Egon Zweig, Die Lehre vom pouvoir constituant (Tübingen: Mohr, 1909).
2. [Tr] Monarchists in the French National Assembly argued that a single man could be
the representative of the people. Cf. Karl Löwenstein, Volk und Parlament nach der
Staatstheorie der französischen Nationalversammlung von 1789 (Munich: Drei Masken
Verlag, 1922).
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