The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy

Carl Schmitt's Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy should trouble readers of all political persuasions. Schmitt's account of the uneasy synthesis of parliamentarianism and democracy is no mere product of its time, but rather an incisive critique of modern forms of politics rendered terrifyingly prescient by the collapse of the Weimar Republic and Schmitt's own embrace of Nazism. Over the course of three sessions of close-reading, we will discuss questions of legitimacy and liberalism, populism and violence--all which remain profoundly relevant to today's political crises.

This seminar, run by Courtney Hodrick, is for undergraduates, junior graduate students, and recent graduates.  Please purchase this edition of the text or ask Zephyr (info@zephyr.org) to set aside a copy for you. We shall meet on the following three Tuesdays, with dinner provided by the Zephyr Institute:

1. Jan. 25th, 530-730pm (Reading Assignment: Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy, Preface and Introduction)
2. Feb. 1st, 530-730pm (Reading Assignment: Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy, Parts 1 and 2)
3. Feb. 8th, 530-730pm (Reading Assignment: Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy, Parts 3 and 4)

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Courtney Hodrick is a PhD Candidate in German Studies at Stanford University. Her research focuses on 20th century German and German-Jewish thought, with an emphasis on the concept of modernity as crisis, and she is writing a dissertation on the concept of hope in the works of Hannah Arendt. Her first academic publication is forthcoming from Telos. She holds a BA in Humanities (Intellectual History) from Yale.

Image: Victor Adam, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons