Who is Afraid of the Total Constitution? Constitutional Rights as Principles and the Constitutionalization of Private Law

2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattias Kumm
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
The Public ◽  
Total Prevalence ◽  
Total State

In 1931 Carl Schmitt published an article titled “the turn to the total state.” The total state that Schmitt describes is not yet a totalitarian state. Germany is still a liberal democracy and the Weimar Constitution is still the supreme law of the land. But the total state Schmitt describes is a state in which the traditional lines between the sphere in which the private law society governs itself and the sphere of state intervention, or the public domain, have been undermined. According to Schmitt, the pluralistic forces of civil society have captured the state and made it an instrument to serve their purposes. Everything is up for grabs politically. It is a state of political mobilization and deep ideological conflict, reflected in the plurality of deeply divided political parties in parliament. It is possible to distinguish between three features, which together illustrate the total prevalence of politics over law underlying “the turn to the total state.”

A Discussion of Christopher H. Achen and Larry M. Bartels' Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Sabl
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Folk Theory ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rational Voter ◽  
Rational Preferences ◽  
Theory Of Democracy ◽  
The U.S

Liberal democracy is often viewed by its supporters as a system of government that responds to the informed and rational preferences of the public organized as voters. And liberal democracy is often viewed by its critics as a system that fails to respond to the informed and rational preferences of its citizens. In this book Larry Bartels and Chris Achen draw on decades of research to argue that a “realistic” conception of democracy cannot be centered on the idea of a “rational voter,” and that the ills of contemporary democracies, and especially democracy in the U.S., must be sought in the dynamics that link voters, political parties and public policy in ways that reproduce inequality. “We believe,” write the authors, “that abandoning the folk theory of democracy is a prerequisite to both greater intellectual clarity and real political change. Too many democratic reformers have squandered their energy on misguided or quixotic ideas.”

A Discussion of Christopher H. Achen and Larry M. Bartels' Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-160
Author(s):  
Isabela Mares
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Folk Theory ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rational Voter ◽  
Rational Preferences ◽  
Theory Of Democracy ◽  
The U.S

Liberal democracy is often viewed by its supporters as a system of government that responds to the informed and rational preferences of the public organized as voters. And liberal democracy is often viewed by its critics as a system that fails to respond to the informed and rational preferences of its citizens. In this book Larry Bartels and Chris Achen draw on decades of research to argue that a “realistic” conception of democracy cannot be centered on the idea of a “rational voter,” and that the ills of contemporary democracies, and especially democracy in the U.S., must be sought in the dynamics that link voters, political parties and public policy in ways that reproduce inequality. “We believe,” write the authors, “that abandoning the folk theory of democracy is a prerequisite to both greater intellectual clarity and real political change. Too many democratic reformers have squandered their energy on misguided or quixotic ideas.”

State Intervention in Party Politics: The Public Funding and Regulation of Political Parties

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid Van Biezen
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Public Funding ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Utilities ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
State Agencies ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Way

This article is concerned with a closer investigation of the growing tendency for the state to intervene in contemporary party politics. It examines two trends. First, it looks more closely at the increased levels of regulation of party activity and behaviour in European democracies, discussing the empirical practice as well as the underlying normative paradigms of party regulation. Second, it examines the increased availability of public funding to political parties from a comparative perspective, while also exploring the motivations for its introduction in light of particular understandings of party democracy. It is argued that both dimensions constitute part of the way in which parties have strengthened their linkages with the state in recent years, and that parties, as a result of the increased involvement of the state in their internal affairs and external behaviour, have become increasingly defined as public utilities or semi-state agencies.

A Discussion of Christopher H. Achen and Larry M. Bartels'Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-156
Author(s):  
Neil Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Folk Theory ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rational Voter ◽  
Rational Preferences ◽  
Theory Of Democracy ◽  
The U.S

Liberal democracy is often viewed by its supporters as a system of government that responds to the informed and rational preferences of the public organized as voters. And liberal democracy is often viewed by its critics as a system that fails to respond to the informed and rational preferences of its citizens. In this book Larry Bartels and Chris Achen draw on decades of research to argue that a “realistic” conception of democracy cannot be centered on the idea of a “rational voter,” and that the ills of contemporary democracies, and especially democracy in the U.S., must be sought in the dynamics that link voters, political parties and public policy in ways that reproduce inequality. “We believe,” write the authors, “that abandoning the folk theory of democracy is a prerequisite to both greater intellectual clarity and real political change. Too many democratic reformers have squandered their energy on misguided or quixotic ideas.”

Remarks on the philosophy and politics of public law

Legal Studies ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Günter Frankenberg
Keyword(s):  
Public Law ◽  
The State ◽  
Law Students ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Constitutional Rights ◽  
Scientific Interest ◽  
The Public ◽  
Administrative Courts

To this very day, public law scholars seem to be concerned about the identity of their area of scientific interest. Many of them in many European legal cultures routinely labour, some even agonise over distinguishing public law from what appears to be a securely established field of private law. More than 20 years ago, 20 to 30 variations of the public/private-theme, usually elevated to the rank of ‘theories’, could be counted in German scholarship alone, none of them satisfying the desire to clarify, once and for all, the nature, purpose, and scope of public law.In this vein, law students are required to discuss at least the major demarcation theories so as, for instance, to establish jurisdiction of administrative courts, liability of the state, or the scope of constitutional rights.

Carl Schmitt and the Paradox of Liberal Democracy

1997 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chantal Mouffe
Keyword(s):  
John Rawls ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Parliamentary Democracy ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Paperback Edition ◽  
Constitutional Regime ◽  
Philosophical Questions

In his introduction to the paperback edition of Political Liberalism, John Rawls, referring to Carl Schmitt's critique of parliamentary democracy, suggests that the fall of Weimar's constitutional regime was in part due to the fact that German elites no longer believed in the possibility of a decent liberal parliamentary regime. This should, in his view, make us realize the importance of providing convincing arguments in favor of a just and well-ordered constitutional democracy. “Debates about general philosophical questions”, he says, “cannot be the daily stuff of politics, but that does not make these questions without significance, since what we think their answers are will shape the underlying attitudes of the public culture and the conduct of politics.”

A Discussion of Christopher H. Achen and Larry M. Bartels Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 152-153
Author(s):  
Elizabeth F. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Folk Theory ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rational Voter ◽  
Rational Preferences ◽  
Theory Of Democracy ◽  
The U.S

Liberal democracy is often viewed by its supporters as a system of government that responds to the informed and rational preferences of the public organized as voters. And liberal democracy is often viewed by its critics as a system that fails to respond to the informed and rational preferences of its citizens. In this book Larry Bartels and Chris Achen draw on decades of research to argue that a “realistic” conception of democracy cannot be centered on the idea of a “rational voter,” and that the ills of contemporary democracies, and especially democracy in the U.S., must be sought in the dynamics that link voters, political parties and public policy in ways that reproduce inequality. “We believe,” write the authors, “that abandoning the folk theory of democracy is a prerequisite to both greater intellectual clarity and real political change. Too many democratic reformers have squandered their energy on misguided or quixotic ideas.”

A Discussion of Christopher H. Achen and Larry M. Bartels' Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antje Schwennicke
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Folk Theory ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rational Voter ◽  
Rational Preferences ◽  
Theory Of Democracy ◽  
The U.S

Liberal democracy is often viewed by its supporters as a system of government that responds to the informed and rational preferences of the public organized as voters. And liberal democracy is often viewed by its critics as a system that fails to respond to the informed and rational preferences of its citizens. In this book Larry Bartels and Chris Achen draw on decades of research to argue that a “realistic” conception of democracy cannot be centered on the idea of a “rational voter,” and that the ills of contemporary democracies, and especially democracy in the U.S., must be sought in the dynamics that link voters, political parties and public policy in ways that reproduce inequality. “We believe,” write the authors, “that abandoning the folk theory of democracy is a prerequisite to both greater intellectual clarity and real political change. Too many democratic reformers have squandered their energy on misguided or quixotic ideas.”

STRATEGY OF LIBERALIZATION AND PROBLEMS OF STATE REGULATION OF AZERBAIJAN ECONOMY

2019 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 139-151
Author(s):  
G. Z. Yuzbashieva ◽  
A. M. Mustafayev ◽  
R. A. Imanov
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Sectoral Development ◽  
Market Relations

The indicators that determine the change in the macroeconomic situation in the economy of Azerbaijan in 2010–2017, as well as the conditions for increasing the effectiveness of state intervention in solving economic problems are analyzed. It is noted that it is not the size of the public sector that becomes important, but its qualitative component (management and redistribution of resources and revenues, coordination of government intervention in economic relations). The main reasons limiting economic growth are identified, and the mechanisms for overcoming them are disclosed, since economic growth is of particular importance in the transformational period of state development. It substantiates the assertion that the forms and methods of state regulation should be the result of a reasonable combination of the private and public sectors of the economy to more effectively achieve the goal of economic development of the country and increase the welfare of the population. To this end, it is advisable to limit the actions of market forces and find a rational ratio of market and government measures that stimulate economic growth and development.It is shown that in the near future the development of the economy of Azerbaijan should be focused on the transition to the integration of various models of economic transformation; at the same time, “attraction of investments” should be carried out by methods of stimulating consumption, and the concept of a socially oriented economy, which the state also implements, should prevail, thereby ensuring social protection of the population and at the same time developing market relations. Disproportions in regional and sectoral development are also noted, which are the result of an ineffective distribution of goods produced, inadequate investment in human capital, a low level of coordination and stimulation of economic growth and development.

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