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Dictatorship: From the Origin of the Modern Concept of Sovereignty to Proletarian Class Struggle
Author(s): Carl Schmitt (Author)
- Publisher: Polity
- Publication Date: 1 Nov. 2013
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 288 pages
- ISBN-10: 9780745646473
- ISBN-13: 9780745646473
Book Description
Now available in English for the first time, Dictatorship is Carl Schmitt’s most scholarly book and arguably a paradigm for his entire work.
Written shortly after the Russian Revolution and the First World War, Schmitt analyses the problem of the state of emergency and the power of the Reichspräsident in declaring it. Dictatorship, Schmitt argues, is a necessary legal institution in constitutional law and has been wrongly portrayed as just the arbitrary rule of a so-called dictator.
Dictatorship is an essential book for understanding the work of Carl Schmitt and a major contribution to the modern theory of a democratic, constitutional state. And despite being written in the early part of the twentieth century, it speaks with remarkable prescience to our contemporary political concerns.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“At last Carl Schmitt’s Dictatorship is available in English. His study and analysis of this concept is key to understanding the varieties of dictatorship.”
George Schwab, National Committee on American Foreign Policy “Dictatorship is the first book ever entirely devoted to the topic of emergency powers. Written as Germany’s fledgeling Weimar Republic resorted to emergency measures to confront insurrections from both the Left and the Right, Dictatorship explores the historical origins and philosophical justifications of extraordinary executive action. A fascinating historical document and a prescient, insightful resource for contemporary debates in political theory and constitutional law.”
John P. McCormick, University of Chicago
George Schwab, National Committee on American Foreign Policy “Dictatorship is the first book ever entirely devoted to the topic of emergency powers. Written as Germany’s fledgeling Weimar Republic resorted to emergency measures to confront insurrections from both the Left and the Right, Dictatorship explores the historical origins and philosophical justifications of extraordinary executive action. A fascinating historical document and a prescient, insightful resource for contemporary debates in political theory and constitutional law.”
John P. McCormick, University of Chicago
About the Author
Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important and influential political theorists of the twentieth century.
