Constitutional Theory

work by Schmitt

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July 21, 2026

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Carl Schmitt's Constitutional Theory (1927) is a significant work in political theory. It analyzes the Weimar Constitution and explores the underlying principles of any democratic constitution. Schmitt, a German jurist, is known for his critique of liberalism and his view that politics is fundamentally based on the distinction between friends and enemies. He argued that liberal parliamentary government was flawed, unable to reconcile democracy with liberalism's individualist nature. Schmitt's work also emphasized the need for transcendental, extrarational sources to ground political authority.1

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Carl Schmitt
His magnum opus, Constitutional Theory (1927), offered an analysis of the Weimar Constitution as well as an account of the principles underlying any democratic constitution. In The Concept of the Political, composed in 1927 and fully elaborated in 1932, Schmitt defined “the political” as the eternal propensity of…
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His magnum opus, Constitutional Theory (1927), offered an analysis of the Weimar Constitution as well as an account of the principles underlying any democratic constitution. In The Concept of the Political, composed in 1927 and fully elaborated in 1932, Schmitt defined “the political” as the eternal propensity of…
Read More