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4 - The Paradigmatic Example of Weimar and Postwar Political Science

The Case of Otto Kirchheimer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2024

By
Peter Breiner
Edited by
Richard Ned Lebow  and
Ludvig Norman
Richard Ned Lebow
Affiliation:
King's College London
Ludvig Norman
Affiliation:
University of Stockholm
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Summary

Breiner emphasizes Weimar’s role as an exemplar in political thought and focuses specifically on the highly influential political scientist Otto Kirchheimer. His chapter highlights how Kirchheimer viewed the Weimar Constitution as a struggle over conflicting and irreconcilable notions of democracy and society and further ties it to his postwar theory of political opposition and its decline. Breiner uses these discussions to highlight how mainstream American political science have misunderstood these ideas and how they relate to core aspects of the Weimar problematique.

Keywords

Weimarpolitical scienceOtto Kirchheimerdemocracy
Type
Chapter
Information
Weimar's Long Shadow , pp. 84 - 118
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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