131214840-Carl-Schmitt

Page 40
theory, and whose systematic investigation has not yet begun—for example, the state as a
machine, the state as an organism, the king as the keystone of an arch, as a flag, or as the soul
of a ship—the imagery of balance is most important for the modern age. Since the sixteenth
century the image of a balance can be found in every aspect of intellectual life (Woodrow
Wilson was certainly the first to acknowledge this in his speeches on freedom): a balance of
trade in international economics, the European balance of power in foreign politics, the
cosmic equilibrium of attraction and repulsion, the balance of the passions in the works of
Malebranche and Shaftesbury, even a balanced diet is recommended by J. J. Moser. The
importance for state theory of this universally employed conception is demonstrated by a few
names: Harrington, Locke, Bolingbroke, Montesquieu, Mably, de Lolme, The Federalist, and
the French National Assembly of 1789. To give just two modern examples: Maurice
Hauriou, in his "Principes de droit public," applies the notion of equilibrium to every
problem of the state and administration, and the enormous success of Robert Redslob's
definition of parliamentary government (1918) demonstrates how powerful this theory is
even today. 17
Applied to the institution of parliament this general conception takes on a specific meaning.
This has to be emphasized because it dominates even Rousseau's thought, although there it
does not have this particular application to parliament. 18 Here, in parliament, there is a
balance that assumes the moderate rationalism of this concept of the balance of powers.
Under the suggestive influence of a compendium tradition, which Montesquieu's theory of
the division of powers simplified, 19 one has become accustomed to seeing parliament as only
a part of the state's functions, one part that is set against the others (executive and courts).
Nevertheless, parliament should not be just a part of this balance, but precisely because it is
the legislative, parliament should itself be balanced. This depends on a way of thinking that
creates multiplicity everywhere so that an equilibrium created from the imminent dynamics
of a system of negotiations replaces absolute
Create PDF with PDF4U. If you wish to remove this line, please click here to purchase the full version