131214840-Carl-Schmitt

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The Principles of Parliamentarism
In the struggle between parliament and monarchy, a government that was decisively
influenced by the representation of the people was called a parliamentary government, and
the word was thus applied to a particular kind of executive. The meaning of the concept
"parliamentarism" was thereby changed. "Parliamentary government" presupposes a
parliament, and to demand such a government means that one begins with parliament as an
existing institution in order to extend its powers, or, in the customary language of
constitutionalism, the legislative should influence the executive. The fundamental concept of
the parliamentary principle cannot rest solely on the participation of parliament in
government, and so far as the question that interests us here is concerned, it cannot be
expected that a discussion of this postulate of parliamentary government would produce
much. We are concerned here with the ultimate intellectual foundations of parliamentarism
itself, not with the extension of the power of parliament. Why has parliament been in fact the
ultimum sapientiae for many generations, and on what has the belief in this institution rested
for over a century? The demand that parliament must control the gov-
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