131214840-Carl-Schmitt

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Preface to the Second Edition (1926):
On the Contradiction between Parliamentarism and Democracy
The second edition of this examination of the intellectual circumstances of contemporary
parliamentarism remains essentially unchanged. This should not create the impression that I
wish to lift it above any discussion. There are rather grounds for a somewhat contrary fear. A
calm and factual debate that distances itself from all party-political exploitation, and serves
as propaganda for no one, might appear impractical, naive, and anachronistic to most people
today. It is thus to be feared that an objective discussion of political concepts will arouse
scant interest and that the desire for such a debate will meet with little understanding.
Perhaps the age of discussion is coming to an end after all. When the first edition of this
treatise appeared in the summer of 1923, it was generally received in such a way as to
confirm these pessimistic conjectures at least in this modest case. 1 Nevertheless it would be
unjust to ignore specific examples of objective criticism, and the detailed and thoughtful
review of such a leading jurist as Richard Thoma in particular deserves an exhaustive reply. 2
The utterly fantastic political aims that Thoma imputes to me at the end of his review I may
surely be allowed to pass over in silence. 3 Political combinations aside, his objective
argument concerns my iden-
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