Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2022
Keywords
Hans Kelsen, Carl Friedrich, John Dewey, Robert Hutchins, Demokratietheorie, Liberalismus, Neukantianismus
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.15203/ozp.3793.vol51iss3
Abstract
Hans Kelsen’s lack of impact on political theory in the United States has been a puzzle. Kelsen arrived at a time in which several influential political ideas competed, none of which were congenial to Kelsen’s approach, and some actively opposed to it. The narrative that relativism led to Nazism; the pragmatist rejection of the fact-value distinction; the return of natural law thinking at the University of Chicago; and a very specific conflict of perspectives at Harvard, are identified as key obstacles to the acceptance of Kelsen’s view of democracy. The most important of these was associated with Carl J. Friedrich, who repeatedly attacked Kelsen, both on Kantian and Schmittian grounds.
Rights Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Was this content written or created while at USF?
Yes
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, v. 51, issue 3, p. 11-21
Scholar Commons Citation
Turner, Stephen Park, "Kelsen in American Political Theory" (2022). Philosophy Faculty Publications. 361.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/phi_facpub/361
