Carl Schmitt's Critique of Congress and the "Dictatorship" Theory

- [Carl Schmidt](/en/Carl%20Schmidt)'s "Critique of Congress" and "Dictatorship" Theory 1. why the parliamentary system was considered "incompatible with democracy - In The Psychohistorical Situation of Modern Parliamentarism (1923), Schmidt wrote that the two assumptions that have justified the Congress--the - 1: Open discussion (council members persuade each other in a reasoned manner) - 2: Variable willingness (each legislator's position can change during the debate) - He pointed out that the Congress of the United States has been dismantled. He argued that the real parliament has become a place of party trade, and that debate is a "hollowed-out apparatus" that remains only a formality.

He therefore said, "Compromises made by majority rule cannot express the identical will of the people. The self-identical will of a homogeneous people is the essence of democracy," and he separated parliamentarism from democracy.

2. "dictatorship" (1921) - typifying forms of power in times of emergency [Kommissarische

• Temporarily suspends the law, but leaves the Constitution as a prerequisite.
• Objective: Restoration of constitutional order
• Example: Emergency Dictator of the Roman Republic Sovereign dictatorship (Souveräne)
• Suspended the old Constitution and determined the fundamental norms
• Purpose: Creation of a new constitutional order
• Example: Jacobins during the French Revolution, etc.

This distinction positions the dictatorship as a "legal system for dealing with states of exception" rather than mere arbitrary rule.

3. plebiscitary dictatorship

• The late Schmitt defended popular-vote dictatorship in his "Constitutional Theory" (1928) and other works.
• The leader obtains direct approval by referendum (plebiscite) or acclamation (akklamation), not through the parliament.
• Here, "the decision of the leader = the will of the people" is considered to be valid, and the immediacy and identity of the decision is more important than in the Congress.

old title:

• Congress is the enemy of democracy.
• The parliamentary system can no longer materialize the democratic will.

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