Contributions to a genealogy of democracy in the twentieth century starting from the opposition Kelsen/Schmitt.

Abstract

In this work I analyze the theories of Carl Schmitt and Hans Kelsen of democracy in the light of the weberian topic of rationalization. My thesis is that this counterpoint does not escape the contemporary split that characterizes the nineteenth century modernity and continues in the twentieth century. At last, I’ll maintain that the political manifestation of this aporetical
background –over which one must understand the challenge of democracy– is what Schmitt calls the total State.