Legitimacy of Modern Democracy

Pedro T. Magalhães has a PhD in Political Science awarded by NOVA University Lisbon, where he taught as a Guest Assistant Professor until 2018. He is currently a post-doctoral researcher at the Academy of Finland funded Centre of Excellence in Law, Identity and the European Narratives (Eurostorie), hosted by the Centre for European Studies at the University of Helsinki. His main research interests are in the fields of democratic theory, modern political ideologies and twentieth-century intellectual history.

• Introduction 1. Max Weber’s Diagnosis of Modernity and the Ambivalence of Modern Democracy 2. The Neo-Authoritarian Populism of Carl Schmitt 3. Science, Relativism and Pluralism: Hans Kelsen’s Conception of Modern Democracy Elitism, Populism and Pluralism: A Conclusion

"Pedro Magalhães offers a personal reading of the works of three trained German jurists: Max Weber, Carl Schmitt and Hans Kelsen. He regards legitimation as a key to their vision of politics. Weber as theorist of action focused on daily debates of politicians, whereas Schmitt reduced politics to dramatic decisions on enmity and exception and Kelsen justified democracy with relativism."Kari Palonen, Professor Emeritus, University of Jyväskylä"The debate today over how democracy might die easily breeds the equal and opposite paralyses of complacency and fright. In this excellent book, Pedro T. Magalhães returns to three pivotal thinkers in the German tradition of conceptualizing the legitimacy of democracy, and argues that their Central European experiences and theoretical enterprise are relevant still. Through his sophisticated reconstructions, he shows that the urgency of our times can prompt deliberation and insight."Samuel Moyn, Yale University"A fresh and tough-minded reevaluation of liberal and authoritarian approaches to the state in Weimar political thought."John P. McCormick, University of Chicago