Hans Kelsen on Constitutional Democracy: Genesis, Theory, Legacies

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Hans Kelsen on Constitutional Democracy: Genesis, Theory, Legacies

Edited by Sandrine Baume · David Ragazzoni
Cambridge University Press February 2026

Specifications

ISBN-13
9781009230377
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publication
February 2026
Format
Hardback
Jurisdiction
U.K. ? Countri(es) for reference only

Details

This volume challenges conventional interpretations by demonstrating that Hans Kelsen was far from being a purely formalist thinker. Instead, it highlights his profound and enduring engagement with the threats facing constitutional democracies. The political and institutional upheavals of interwar Europe significantly influenced Kelsen's evolving vision of democracy, as this volume shows. His contributions to 20th-century democratic theory include groundbreaking insights into multiparty systems, mechanisms of moderation, minority protections, and judicial review. Furthermore, Kelsen's reflections on the crises and collapses of democracies during the 1930s remain strikingly relevant, offering valuable perspectives on contemporary challenges such as polarization and populism.

This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Sandrine Baume and David Ragazzoni

Part I. Genesis:
1. The forgotten beginnings of Kelsen as a political and legal theorist: 'Dante Alighieri's philosophy of the state' (1905)
David Ragazzoni
2. The making of Kelsen's concept of democracy
Matthias Jestaedt
3. The origins of the fragility of interwar democracies
Kelsen and Neumann Peter Langford
4. Ideal and real democracy in Hans Kelsen's political work (1918–1955)
Sara Lagi

Part II. Theory:
5. The essence and value of political parties
Nadia Urbinati
6. Relativism and leadership in Kelsen's theory of democracy
Carlo Invernizzi Accetti and Nicole Peisajovich
7. Revisiting Kelsen's party constitutionalism
Fabio Wolkenstein
8. Kelsen's argument for constitutional review: a reappraisal
Lars Vinx
9. Constitutionalism, democracy, and international law in Kelsen's pure theory of law
David Dyzenhaus

Part III. Legacies:
10. The genius of democracy: Kelsen and Schumpeter
Adam Przeworski
11. Hans Kelsen, Leo Strauss, and the crisis of American democracy
William Scheuerman
12. Can't we all just get along? Revisiting Kelsen's account of parliamentarism, parties, and compromise
Jan-Werner Müller
13. The Kelsenian critique of militant democracy: its contemporary echoes
Sandrine Baume

Afterword
Duncan Kelly
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