Dictatorship: From the Origin of the Modern Concept of Sovereignty to Proletarian Class Struggle

Now available in English for the first time, Dictatorship is Carl Schmitt’s most scholarly book and arguably a paradigm for his entire work.

Written shortly after the Russian Revolution and the First World War, Schmitt delves into:

• The problem of the state of emergency
• The power of the Reichspräsident in declaring it

Schmitt argues that dictatorship is not merely the arbitrary rule of a so-called dictator but rather a necessary legal institution in constitutional law.

Dictatorship is:

• An essential book for understanding the work of Carl Schmitt
• A major contribution to the modern theory of a democratic, constitutional state

Despite being written in the early part of the twentieth century, this work speaks with remarkable prescience to our contemporary political concerns.