Legitimacy of Modern Democracy: A Study on the Political Thought of Max Weber, Carl Schmitt and Hans Kelsen

This book explores the political thought of Max Weber, Carl Schmitt, and Hans Kelsen to reflect on the nature of modern democracy and its legitimacy. It shows that present-day accounts of democracy owe an intellectual debt to the interwar era, German-speaking scholarly and political controversies on the problem(s) of modern democracy. It interprets Schmitt's interwar political thought as neo-authoritarian populism and Kelsen's as robust pluralist, drawing on Claude Lefort's concept of indeterminacy to suggest a more fruitful way of conceiving the nexus between the elitist, populist, and pluralist faces of modern democracy.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 208 pages
\n Publication date: 31 December 2020
\n Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
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This book delves into the political thought of Max Weber, Carl Schmitt, and Hans Kelsen, offering a profound reflection on the nature of modern democracy and its legitimacy. Pedro T. Magalhães demonstrates that contemporary accounts of democracy, encompassing elitist, populist, and pluralist perspectives, bear an intellectual debt to the interwar era, particularly the German-speaking scholarly and political controversies surrounding the challenges of modern democracy.

A comprehensive discussion of Weber's ambivalent diagnosis of modernity and his elitist views on democracy, particularly during the 1910s, sets the stage for the subsequent analysis. Against this backdrop, Schmitt's interwar political thought is interpreted as a manifestation of neo-authoritarian populism, while Kelsen's pluralist consequences are explored in depth.

In the conclusion, the author draws upon Claude Lefort's concept of indeterminacy to propose a potentially more fruitful way of understanding the interplay between the elitist, populist, and pluralist faces of modern democracy. This book appeals to a wide range of scholars, including political theorists, political philosophers, intellectual historians, theoretically oriented political scientists, and legal scholars engaged in the fields of constitutional law and legal theory.

The Open Access version of this book, accessible at https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315157566, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license, ensuring widespread access and dissemination of valuable insights.

\n Weight: 460g\n
Dimension: 158 x 237 x 20 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9781138068889\n \n