Democracy in its Essence: Hans Kelsen as a Political Thinker

The book investigates Kelsen's theory of democracy as it developed between the 1920s and the 1950s, through four main themes: pluralism, constitutionalism, relativism and proceduralism. By adopting an historical approach, the objective is to argue how such a political theory took shape as a response to a series of historical-political events and political theories which represented for Kelsen a challenge and even a threat to liberal, representative and parliamentary democracy. The book thus wants to properly situtate Kelsen's political theory within the tradition of Twentieth century European Liberal-democratic thought.