Hermann Heller on Authoritarian Liberalism and the Form of Democratic State
Öz
This study examines Hermann Heller’s ideas on authoritarian liberalism and the form of the democratic
state, which continue to be relevant for current discussions on the rise of authoritarian neoliberal regimes. Heller
conceives democracy as popular sovereignty. Accordingly, the principle of popular sovereignty imposes a
certain form to a state, which is nothing other than the constitutional state. He inseparably binds the
organizational features of constitutional state (such as the rule of statutory law and separation of powers) to
popular sovereignty, so that one side cannot be effectively realized in the absence of the other. On the other
hand, he makes a sound and theoretically backed examination of what the authoritarian state actually is. In this
way, Heller develops solid arguments against the efforts to reconcile authoritarian form of the state with popular
sovereignty. Heller addresses conventional concepts such as parliamentarism, democratic authority, and the
constitutional state, which are often considered outmoded or obsolete. While he clarifies the meaning of these
concepts and analyzes their connection with the state organs, he defends and graces them as well.
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Referans 1
Bakıner, Onur (2017), “How Did We Get Here? Turkey’s Slow Shift to Authoritarianism”, Başer, Bahar
and Ahmet Erdi Öztürk (eds.), Authoritarian Politics in Turkey: Elections, Resistance and
the AKP (New York, London: I.B. Tauris): 21-47.