Mid-20th century vision of the concept of militant democracy

Abstract

With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, a new round of “militant democracy” is taking place. The current situation is very similar to the one that led to the invention of the very concept of “democracy capable of defending itself.” This raises the question of understanding “militant democracy” in its original and primary vision, which was formed in the middle of the twentieth century. The purpose of the article is to comprehensively disclose the concept of militant democracy in the middle of the twentieth century. It is based not only on the articles of Karl Löwenstahl, but also on the works of scholars in the fields of philosophy, political science and sociology. The achievement of this goal was made possible by the use of a set of methods of scientific knowledge, in particular, content analysis (for a comprehensive knowledge of the scientific works of scholars of the mid-twentieth century), formal logical method (to identify certain patterns, stable structures, interrelationships, and inconsistencies in scientific works), comparative legal method (by studying the experience of the last century and comparing it with the current understanding of the concept, to provide an up-to-date interpretation that would allow the use of the works cited in the article). In contrast to most studies of the sources of militant democracy, the article refers not only to the articles of the founder of “democracy capable of defending itself,” Karl Löwenstahl, but also to other scholars: Karl Schmitt, Karl Mannheim, and Karl Popper. The author shows the interrelation between the works and the mutual influence of the cited scholars. It is argued that the formation of the concept of militant democracy took place not only in the field of law, but also in other related sciences. Based on the results of the research, the author gives an intermediate definition of “democracy capable of defending itself”, which derives only from the articles of Karl Löwenstahl, and a finalized vision of militant democracy, which is a synthesis of all the analyzed works. On the eve of rethinking militant democracy in today's realities, it is necessary to re-comprehend the foundations of this concept, which will allow better implementation of necessary changes in our time.