Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft (Journal)
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Monika Eigmüller (2021): Sozialraum Europa. Der Einfluss der europäischen Bürgerinnen und Bürger auf die Entwicklung einer EU-Sozialpolitik
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Alexander Reichwein (2021): Hans J. Morgenthau und die Twenty Years‘ Crisis. Das realistische Denken eines Emigranten im Lichte seines deutschen Erfahrungshintergrundes
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Hans Kelsen’s Political Theology: Science, Pantheism, and Democracy
Full text linkThis article argues that the field of political theology should pay greater attention to Hans Kelsen. Kelsen developed a unique, epistemological form of political theology. For Kelsen, a subject’s beliefs about what is knowable determines the form of theology and jurisprudence both. He argued that subscribing to a modern scientific epistemology led one to embrace a pantheist theology and democracy. Drawing on the structural analogy between theology and jurisprudence, Kelsen offered an alternative theory of democratic legitimacy. He argued that pantheism’s immanent conception of the divine, of truth and right, is a model for understanding democratic legitimacy. Democratic proceduralism is valid because it generates valid law relatively and immanently, not absolutely and transcendently
Practising International Thought as a Critique of Populism: Realist Accounts for a Democratic Political
Full text linkStarting the third decade of the twenty-first century feels like a hundred years before: a virus has led to a pandemic, economies are struggling, unemployment is rising, and democracies are under threat by populist demagogues. In contrast to the 1920s, however, particularly countries with long democratic traditions are threatened by populism today. To identify potential pathways to protect democracies, this paper returns to the 1920s by focusing with Hans Kelsen and Hans Morgenthau on scholars who had first-hand experiences with populism in Europe. While both pursued contrasting approaches to deal with their experiences, they took a similar stance to anti-democratic forces. A reengagement with their thought helps to sensitise current scholarship to understand why such demagogues are resurfacing again.Starting the third decade of the twenty-first century feels like a hundred years before: a virus has led to a pandemic, economies are struggling, unemployment is rising, and democracies are under threat by populist demagogues. In contrast to the 1920s, however, particularly countries with long democratic traditions are threatened by populism today. To identify potential pathways to protect democracies, this paper returns to the 1920s by focusing with Hans Kelsen and Hans Morgenthau on scholars who had first-hand experiences with populism in Europe. While both pursued contrasting approaches to deal with their experiences, they took a similar stance to anti-democratic forces. A reengagement with their thought helps to sensitise current scholarship to understand why such demagogues are resurfacing again
What Expertise Does Politics Need in Times of Crisis? Notes on the Current Situation in Austria
Full text linkIn the Coronavirus crisis, a slogan became prominent that we know from the climate debate: Follow the science! What is wrong with this slogan and how policy advice should be organized in the crisis is discussed in this text. It is argued that the demands on expertise depend on the type of crisis: While expertocracy is legitimate in acute crisis situations, strong interdisciplinarity is needed in chronic crises. The associated fear of polyphony and disunity in science is wrong. Only expert dissent – albeit institutionally coordinated and well justified – makes it clear what is at stake and what room for maneuver there is for policymakers to make decisions
Professor Kelsen’s Amazing Reappearing Act
Full text linkHans Kelsen (1881-1973) ranks as one of the most important legal philosophers and liberal political theorists of the twentieth century. With his Pure Theory of Law, he set out to liberate legal and political discourse from anti-democratic baggage. So significant was Kelsen’s intellectual influence that Hans J. Morgenthau once praised him thus: “To Hans Kelsen, who has taught us through his example how to speak Truth to Power.” Bringing together a diverse group of thinkers whose works cross disciplinary boundaries, this special issue, “Kelsen, Politics, and Realism”, asks whether Kelsen’s thought is still relevant to our times. It is argued that Kelsen can help us think about government and international affairs in a moment when democracy and peace are threatened
Franz Cede / Christian Prosl (Hrsg.): Diplomaten im Dialog. Zeitzeugnis einer Generation
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The One and the Many: A Critical Reflection on the Foundations of Hans Kelsen’s Democratic Theory
Full text linkThis paper offers a critical examination of the foundations of Hans Kelsen’s democratic theory in neo-Kantian epistemology. It argues that, while such an epistemological framework provides coherence to his intellectual endeavor by reconciling his monistic legal theory with a pluralist democratic theory, it weakens the theoretical fertility and analytic edge of his political thought. Furthermore, I also claim that the Kelsenian epistemological turn, in its understanding of both law and politics, remains very much entangled in the dilemmas and modes of thought of a philosophical tradition that Kelsen himself believed to have entirely surpassed. His nevertheless insightful analysis of modern democratic institutions would therefore benefit from being read through different philosophical spectacles.This paper offers a critical examination of the foundations of Hans Kelsen’s democratic theory in neo-Kantian epistemology. It argues that, while such an epistemological framework provides coherence to his intellectual endeavor by reconciling his monistic legal theory with a pluralist democratic theory, it weakens the theoretical fertility and analytic edge of his political thought. Furthermore, I also claim that the Kelsenian epistemological turn, in its understanding of both law and politics, remains very much entangled in the dilemmas and modes of thought of a philosophical tradition that Kelsen himself believed to have entirely surpassed. His nevertheless insightful analysis of modern democratic institutions would therefore benefit from being read through different philosophical spectacles
Demokratiezufriedenheit in Österreich – was bleibt nach Ibiza?
Full text linkDer Ibiza Skandal hat 2019 zu einem innenpolitisch turbulenten Jahr gemacht. Während Konsequenzen wie das Regierungsende offensichtlich sind, lassen sich Folgen für die Demokratiezufriedenheit in Österreich schwerer abschätzen. Zu dieser Frage liefert der vorliegende Artikel einen empirischen Beitrag. Wir zeigen, dass sich keine eindeutig negativen Effekte auf die Demokratiezufriedenheit finden. Allerdings hat die Zufriedenheit der AnhängerInnen der hauptbetroffenen FPÖ messbar gelitten, wohl auch aufgrund der Wahlniederlage der Partei. Während die individuelle wirtschaftliche Lage ein wichtiger Einfluss auf die Demokratiezufriedenheit bleibt, sind nennenswerte Änderungen in den Einstellungen einzelner Einkommensgruppen nicht festzustellen. Die Neuwahl dürfte ihrerseits einen Effekt gehabt haben: AnhängerInnen von Parteien, die bei der Wahl Stimmenanteile gewinnen konnten, waren danach mit dem Funktionieren der Demokratie in Österreich zufriedener
The Role of Recognition in Kelsen’s Account of Legal Obligation and Political Duty
Full text linkKelsen’s critique of absolute sovereignty famously appeals to a basic norm of international recognition. However, in his discussion of legal obligation, generally speaking, he notoriously rejects mutual recognition as having any normative consequence. I argue that this apparent contradiction in Kelsen’s estimate regarding the normative force of recognition is resolved in his dynamic account of the democratic generation of law. Democracy is embedded within a modern political ethos that obligates legal subjects to recognize each other along four dimensions: as contractors whose mutually beneficial cooperation measures esteem by fair standards of contribution; as autonomous agents endowed with equal rights; as friends who altruistically care for each others’ welfare, and as fallible agents of diverse experiences and worldviews