131214840-Carl-Schmitt

3. Rudolf Smend, "Die Verschiebung der konstitutionellen Ordnung durch
Verhältniswahl," in Festgabe für Karl Bergbohm [vol. 2] (Bonn: A. Marcus & E.
Webers, 1919), 278; and Smend, "Die politische Gewalt im Verfassungsstaat und das
Problem der Staatsform," in Festgabe für Wilhelm Kahl (Tübingen: Mohr, 1923), 22.
[Both are reprinted in Smend, Staatsrechtliche Abhandlungen (Berlin: Duncker &
Humblot, 1955, 1968), 60–88. —tr.]
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4. As characteristic of this view the following can be mentioned: Adhémar Esmein,
Éléments de droit constitutionnel (Paris: Librairie de la Société du Recueil Général des
Lois et des Arrets, 1909, 5th edition), 274: "Because the representative regime [by this
he means parliamentarism] is essentially a regime of debate and free discussion."
Further, in the seventh edition of the same work (Ésmein-Nezard, 1921), vol. 1, 448, he
explains all the institutions of parliamentary constitutional law today by noting that such
a system "assumes the maximum liberty of decision and discussion in the legislative
assembly." See also Harold Laski, The Foundations of Sovereignty [New York:
Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1921], 36: ''The fundamental hypothesis of government in a
representative system is that it is government by discussion."
5. Guizot, Histoire des origines du gouvernement représentatif en France, vol. 2 (Paris:
Didier, 1851), 14. This book arose from lectures that Guizot held from 1820 onward and
often rewrote; it is the result of what an important scholar, an experienced politician, and
an honorable man observed and thought in the years from 1814 to 1848. His theory of
parliamentarism, inspired by the Anglo-Saxon spirit, Guizot called in the foreword
(dated May 1851) "the faith and hope that have filled my life and which until lately have
been the faith and hope of our times." The typical meaning of Guizot is well recognized
by Hugo Krabbe, Die moderne Staatsidee (The Hague: Martinus Nijhof, 1919), 178.
Because of its exhaustive summary, Krabbe cites Guizot's opinion of parliamentarism in
full: "That is in addition the character of a system that nowhere acknowledges the
legitimacy of absolute power to oblige all citizens constantly and without restriction to
seek truth, reason, and justice, which have to check actual power. It is this which
constitutes the representative system: (1)through discussion the powers-that-be are
obliged to seek truth in common; (2) through publicity the powers are brought to this
search under the eyes of the citizenry; (3) through freedom of the press the citizens
themselves are brought to look for truth and to tell this to the powers-that-be." In the
phrase representative system, representative refers to the representation of the (rational)
people in parliament. The equation of parliamentarism and the representative system is
characteristic of the confusion of the nineteenth century. The concept of representation
has a deeper problematic that has not yet been fully recognized. For my purposes here it
is enough to refer to parliamentarism and only briefly indicate the particular character of
the true concept of representation: It belongs essentially to the sphere of publicity (in
contrast to deputization, commission, mandate, and so forth, which are originally
concepts of civil law), and it assumes a personal worth in the persons representing and
represented and also in that person before whom representation is made (in contrast to
the representation of interests or management). To give a very clear example: In the
eighteenth century a prince was represented before other princes by his ambassador
(who must also be a nobleman), whereas economic and other sorts of business could be
left to "agents." In the struggle of parliament with absolute monarchy, parliament
appeared as the representative of the people (conceived as a unity). Where the people
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