Dictatorship

Now available in English for the first time, Dictatorship is Carl Schmitt’s most scholarly book and arguably a paradigm for his entire work. Written shortly after the Russian Revolution and the First World War, Schmitt analyses the problem of the state of emergency and the power of the Reichspräsident in declaring it. Dictatorship, Schmitt argues, is a necessary legal institution in constitutional law and has been wrongly portrayed as just the arbitrary rule of a so-called dictator. Dictatorship is an essential book for understanding the work of Carl Schmitt and a major contribution to the modern theory of a democratic, constitutional state. And despite being written in the early part of the twentieth century, it speaks with remarkable prescience to our contemporary political concerns.

Translator’s Introduction Foreword to the fourth edition (1978) Foreword to the third edition (1964) Foreword to the second edition (1928) Preliminary remarks to the first edition (1921) I Commissary Dictatorship and the theory of the state II The praxis of royal commissars up to the 18th century III The transition to sovereign dictatorship in the theory of the state of the 18th century IV The concept of sovereign dictatorship V The praxis of the people’s commissars during the French Revolution VI Dictatorship in the contemporary constitution (the state of besiegement) Appendix: The Dictatorship of the Reichspräsident according to Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution pp. 211-57 I Common interpretation of Article 48, Paragraph 2 today II The regulation of Article 48, Paragraph 2 as a provisorium III General limitation of competence based on Article 48, Paragraph 2 IV The law of implementation [Ausfüngsgesetz] regarding Article 48 RV INDEX OF NAMES INDEX OF SUBJECTS GLOSSARY