Hermann Heller and the Problem of Political Unity

During the instability that characterized the Weimar Republic, the problem of political unity became a question of utmost concern. Unlike its English language equivalent, the German term politische Einheit signifies both the concrete unity and the bearer of that unity, the state. The three most important theorist of political unity in the Weimar Republic were Carl Schmitt, Hans Kelsen, and Hermann Heller. Whereas Schmitt’s and Kelsen’s theses have been the subject of extensive scholarly debate in the anglophone world, Heller’s approach to the problem of political unity has received relatively less scholarly treatment. Given this relative neglect of Hermann Heller in the history of political thought, this dissertation seeks to recover the core concept of Heller’s work on the problem of political unity, namely, the state. As a result, the central question of the dissertation is: What is Hermann Heller’s concept of the state? Against recent interpreters who see Heller’s conception of the state as Hobbesian or Weberian, this dissertation argues for a left Hegelian reading of Heller’s theory. For Heller, the state is a unitarily effective but essentially pluralistic organization that can be distinguished from other kinds of organization by its sovereignty and territoriality. It exists only insofar as it successfully unites the dialectical moments of power, law, and ethics. Because of its dialectical constitution, Heller concludes that statehood is not a binary but a continuum. This enables him to bridge the gap between descriptive and normative political theory to defend parliamentary democracy and reformist socialism as the best practicable solution to the problem of political unity in the early twentieth century. Whereas some scholars identify a fundamental break in Heller’s thought, the interpretation defended here identifies fundamental continuities between Heller’s early work on Hegel and his later work in legal theory and political science.