131214840-Carl-Schmitt

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that reason organizational problems are fundamentally the same in both cases, and
democracy is a question not only of the state but also of commercial enterprises." 10 But a
political form of organization ceases to be political if it is, like the modern economy, based
on private law. There are certainly analogies between a monarch, the absolute master in the
state, and a capitalist, who (naturally in a completely different sense) is the absolute master in
his business. There are possibilities on both sides for participation by the subordinates, but
the form and content of authority, publicity, and representation are essentially different.
Finally, it would also contradict every rule of economic thought to apply by way of analogy
political forms which have been created on very different assumptions to modern economic
conditions, or, to use a well-known economic image, to transfer the construction of a
superstructure onto an essentially different substructure.
The various nations or social and economic groups who organize themselves
"democratically" have the same subject, 'the people', only in the abstract. In concreto the
masses are sociologically and psychologically heterogeneous. A democracy can be militarist
or pacifist, absolutist or liberal, centralized or decentralized, progressive or reactionary, and
again different at different times without ceasing to be a democracy. From these facts it
stands to reason that one cannot give democracy content by means of a transfer into the
economic sphere. What remains then of democracy? For its definition, one has a string of
identities. It belongs to the essence of democracy that every and all decisions which are taken
are only valid for those who themselves decide. That the outvoted minority must be ignored
in this only causes theoretical and superficial difficulties. In reality even this rests on the
identity that constantly recurs in democratic logic and on the essential democratic
argument—as will be seen immediately—that the will of the outvoted minority is in truth
identical with the will of the majority. Rousseau's frequently cited arguments in Contrat
social are fundamental for democratic thought and ultimately conform to an ancient
tradition. 11 It is to be found almost literally in Locke: 12
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