Hegelian swan song. National democracy and political leadership in Carl Schmitt 1930-1933

Authors

  • Carl Antonius Lemke Duque

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rep.208.02

Abstract

This study focuses on the transformation of political concepts in Carl Schmitt during the early 1930s. First, we contextualize and analyze his lecture on Hugo Preuß given in January 1930 in Berlin. This text was included in the 2016 German edition of the 1931 Der Hüter der Verfassung. In two following steps of analysis (parts III. and IV.), we analyze and criticize, in this 1930 lecture, the references to Max Weber whose sociology of power Schmitt knew perfectly. Finally, we explain how Schmitt maintains the camouflage of «technically neutralizing» the called liberal-democracy in his November 1933 pre-essay from the 1933 Staat, Bewegung, Volk. We argue that the key to understanding the conceptual transformation in Schmitt between 1930 and 1933 consists of a semantical deformation of Weber.

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Published

2025-06-18

How to Cite

Lemke Duque , C. A. (2025). Hegelian swan song. National democracy and political leadership in Carl Schmitt 1930-1933. Revista De Estudios Políticos, (208), 41–75. https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rep.208.02

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ARTICLES