131214840-Carl-Schmitt

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Introduction to the First Edition (1923)
As long as parliamentarism has existed, there has also been a literature criticizing it. 1 It was
first developed, understandably, on the ground of reaction and restoration by political
opponents who were defeated in the struggle against parliamentarism. Increasing practical
experience brought out the deficiencies of party government, and these were then given
prominence. Finally, a critique came from another principled side, from the radicalism of the
left. Thus, right-wing and left-wing tendencies, conservative, syndicalist, and anarchist
arguments, and monarchist, aristocratic, and democratic perspectives here joined forces. One
finds the simplest summary of the current situation in a speech that Senator Mosca made in
the Italian Senate on November 26, 1922, concerning the domestic and foreign policy of
Mussolini's government. 2 According to Mosca, three radical solutions offer themselves as a
corrective for the deficiencies of the parliamentary system: the so-called dictatorship of the
proletariat; a return to the more or less disguised absolutism of a bureaucracy (''un
assolutismo burocratico"); and, finally, a form of syndicalist government, that is, replacing
the individualistic representation that exists in contemporary parliament with an organization
of syndicates. The last was regarded by the
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