Carl Schmitt's Theory Of Democracy

Carl Schmitt,a famous German jurist and political philosopher in the 20 th century,has spent his entire life entangled in the political development of Germany.After the defeat of World War I,Germany chose a free and democratic way and began to rush to establish a new parliamentary system.Due to its inherent deficiencies,the Weimar Republic was attacked by Parties.In the context of the crisis of constitutional government in Weimar,Schmitt published a series of influential books trying to reshape Germany's democracy theoretically.Schmitt defined democracy as "identity" arguing that democracy is the unity of the ruler and the ruled.The essence of democracy is that all decisions made are only valid for the decision makers themselves.The fundamental principle of democracy is homogeneity.By explaining that the parliamentary system has deviated from its intrinsic principle,it reveals the difficulties of the parliamentary system and conceptually divides "liberalism" and "democracy".Schmitt emphasizes the contradiction between parliamentarism and democracy,and points out that the environment for a liberal mass democracy led to the crisis of democracy itself,while the dictatorship opposed to the principle of parliamentarism did not contravene democracy.Schmitt's democratic ideology involves a very wide range.Schmitt's ideological roots can be traced back to Hobbes and Rousseau.The Natural state theory and strong nationalism thought of Hobbes is Schmitt's foundation.The "General will" and the concept of democracy of Rousseau have been directly applied in Schmitt.In the controversy of various schools of thought,Thoma and Kelsen launched an argument with Schmitt.Thoma criticized Schmitt for lacking consistent perspectives and argued that his theory of parliamentary system had sought to achieving an alliance between dictatorship and religion.Kelsen tried his best to defend the parliamentary democracy and confronted Schmitt with his understanding of the essence and value of democracy.The Democracy theory of Schmitt was developed on the basis of examining the real-life politics in Germany and respond to the constantly changing political problems in different political systems.Its ultimate goal is political theology.In the battle with liberalism,Schmitt's diagnosis of the parliamentary democracy was thought-provoking.It is worth taking seriously.However,we should also be vigilant of the potential pitfalls in his democratic thought.To a certain extent,he has blurred the concept of a democratic subject and created the danger of using it in the name of democracy.