Notas sobre o pensamento político de Hans Kelsen

Abstract

It is a known fact that 1942 was an important year for Kelsen. After having lectured at Harvard University in 1941, he finally managed to establish himself as a full professor at the University of California, Berkeley, thereby marking the beginning his American period. He was attached to the Department of Political Science, wherein he devoted himself to numerous courses,many of them in international law, theory of the state, and politics. His studies on these topics, however, did not actually begin in that decade. In fact, in relation to the perspective that interests us, much of the political writings date back to the '20s. Some of them even result from the positions and reflections advocated during the drafting of the Austrian Constitution. Accordingly,the purpose of this essay is to provide guidelines for Kelsen's political theory. As the field is considerably extensive, we will be focusing on the theme of democracy as the "key" that allows us to link legal analysis and Kelsen's political theory. Thus, important issues such as the classic antithesis between positive and negative liberty, the majority principle, moral disputes,and other constitutional matters will be referred to when they serve to establish the points of the proposed argumentative fabric. Democracy is therefore analyzed in its procedural aspect. Finally,we will leave space for a brief conclusive summary.