Homogeneity and Heterogeneity: On Carl Schmitt’s Concept of Legitimacy
Date Issued
2006
Date
2006
Author(s)
Chen, Yi-Kai
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
I think Carl Schmitt’s discourses on legitimacy are based on democracy, the self-government of the people (das Volk). In such a theory, the source of legitimacy is neither “pouvoir constituent” nor natural rights, but “pouvoir constituant” of a people with its own self-consciousness and homogeneity. The largest danger to legitimacy is consequently the unrestrained heterogeneity, which blurs self-consciousness of the people. In the context of modern history, this danger originated from the process of neutralization, which could be divided into two stages: the first is binary differentiation of state/society; the second one is pluralism. In his eye, the constitution on the incorrect basis of neutralization (die bürgerlich-rechtsstaatliche Verfassung) is unable to resist the erosion of heterogeneity, because it refuses to take political decision seriously. Its system of legality had degraded into a functional machine without legitimacy and substance. Schmitt thinked it’s necessary to find a new personal power to protect democracy and legitimacy. In the condition of Weimar Republic, he expected the “Reichspräsident” to undertake such a political mission. Finally, this article would deal with the question left by Schmitt: is there any possibility for the realization of democracy in modern world.
Subjects
正當性
合法性
服從義務
同質性
人民
民主
政治性
敵友之分
制憲權
自然狀態
自由主義
多元主義
legitimacy
legality
obligation of obedience
homogeneity
people
Volk
democracy
the political
the distinction of friend and enemy
pouvoir constituant
the state of nature
liberalism
pluralism
Rechtsstaat
parliamentarism
Type
thesis
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