The Guardian of the Constitution

Chapter 5 analyzes Schmitt’s theory of dictatorship. Schmitt’s theory of dictatorship was part of his broader criticism of positivism and its inability to effectively respond to the instabilities mass democracy wrought on the state and constitution. Positive laws, including constitutional amendment procedures, could themselves become threats to the fundamental commitments of public order. The suspension of positive laws might be justified. Schmitt argued dictatorship was a necessary final bulwark against this sort of revolutionary threat. The dictator, as guardian of last resort capable of acting outside positive law, could become necessary for a state to survive internal enemies. Yet, although dictatorship could suspend positive law, Schmitt argued it did not suspend the fundamental public order of the state and constitution—a distinction positivism was unable to recognize. This chapter concludes with an analysis of Schmitt’s discussion of the role of the president as guardian of the constitution

Constitution · Democracy · Dictator · Dictatorship · Guardian · Jurisprudence · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Positivism · Sociology · State (computer science) · Law · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought · 1918-1933 · carl Schmitt (1888-1985) · Constitutional history · Germany · History · Philosophy · politics and government · The State

• The Contemporary Relevance of Carl Schmitt

  Lars Vinx, Matilda Arvidsson et al.•The Contemporary Relevance of…•2015

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