Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy

Introduction

Carl Schmitt's (Parliamentarismus in Its Historical Context) Die geistesgeschichtliche Lage des heutigen Parlamentarismus has been commonly read to be "welcome to the broad spectrum of anti-parliamentary prejudices in the Weimar Republic" (Schmitt Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy xiii.) His critiques of parliamentary democracies undermined the legitimacy of the Reichstag in the Weimar Republic. Schmitt was closely identified with Political Catholicism in the first years of the Weimar Republic and his contact with Catholic political and intellectual circles made him the leading exponent of the Catholic view among German jurists. The second edition of his book was written particularly to address the critique of Richard Thoma's review and was shown in multiple publications including Hochland - through Karl Muth in 1926- and the second edition of his Parlamentarismus. This work shows Schmitts focus on the critique of his contemporary society and the history of political ideas.