The Authoritarian State: An Essay on the Problem of the Austrian State (Collected Works of Eric Voegelin, Volume 4)

Published in Vienna in 1936, __The Authoritarian State__ by Eric Voegelin has remained virtually unobtainable and unknown to the public until now. Sales of the German edition were halted following the Nazi invasion of Austria in 1938, and the entire printing was later destroyed by wartime bombing. In this volume, Voegelin offers a critical examination of the most prominent European theories of state and constitutional law of the period while providing a political and historical analysis of the Austrian situation. He discusses the dismissal of Parliament in 1933, the civil war, the murder of Federal Chancellor Dollfuss, the adoption of the "Authoritarian Constitution" of 1934, and the predicament of being sandwiched between Hitler and Mussolini. A radical critique of Hans Kelsen's pure theory of law lies at the heart of this work, marking Voegelin's definitive departure from Neo-Kantian epistemology. For the first time, Voegelin elaborates on the important distinction between theoretical concepts and political symbols as a basis for explaining the nontheoretical and speculative character of ideologies, both left and right. He shows that __total__ and __authoritarian__ are symbols of ideological self-interpretation that have no theoretical value, a distinction basic to his later work in __The New Science of Politics.__ Available for the first time in English, __The Authoritarian State__ is a valuable addition to the Voegelin canon and to the field of intellectual history in general.

Published in Vienna in 1936, The Authoritarian State by Eric Voegelin has remained virtually unknown to the public until now. Sales of the German edition were halted following the Nazi invasion of Austria in 1938, and the entire printing was later destroyed by wartime bombing. In this volume, Voegelin offers a critical examination of the most prominent European theories of state and constitutional law of the period while providing a political and historical analysis of the Austrian situation. He discusses the dismissal of Parliament in 1933, the civil war, the murder of Federal Chancellor Dollfuss, the adoption of the "Authoritarian Constitution" of 1934, and the predicament of being sandwiched between Hitler and Mussolini.

A radical critique of Hans Kelsen's pure theory of law lies at the heart of this work, marking Voegelin's definitive departure from Neo-Kantian epistemology. For the first time, Voegelin elaborates on the important distinction between theoretical concepts and political symbols as a basis for explaining the nontheoretical and speculative character of ideologies, both left and right. He shows that total and authoritarian are symbols of ideological self-interpretation that have no theoretical value, a distinction basic to his later work in The New Science of Politics.

Available for the first time in English, The Authoritarian State is a valuable addition to the Voegelin canon and to the field of intellectual history in general.

v. 1. On the form of the American mind v. 2. Race and state v. 3. The history of the race idea v. 4. The authoritarian state / translated from the German by Ruth Hein ; edited with an introduction by Gilbert Weiss ; historical commentary on the period by Erika Weinzierl v. 5. Modernity without restraint v. 6. Anamnesis on the theory of history and politics v. 7. Published essays, 1922-1928 v. 8. Published essays, 1929-1933 v. 9. Published essays, 1934-1939 v. 10. Published essays, 1940-1952 v. 11. Published essays, 1953-1965 v. 12. Published essays, 1966-1985 v. 13. Selected book reviews v. 14. Order and history. Israel and Revelation v. 15. Order and history. The world of the polis v. 16. Order and history. Plato and Aristotle v. 17. Order and history. The ecumenic age v. 18. Order and history. In search of order v. 19-26. History of political ideas v. 27. The nature of the law and related legal writings v. 28. What is history? and other late unpublished writings v. 31. Hitler and the Germans v. 32. The theory of governance and other miscellaneous papers, 1921-1938 v. 33. The drama of humanity and other miscellaneous papers, 1939-1985 In The History of the Race Idea: From Ray to Carus, Eric Voegelin places the rise of the race idea in the context of the development of modern philosophy. The history of the race idea, according to Voegelin, begins with the post-Christian orientation toward a natural system of living forms. In the late seventeenth century, philosophy set about a new task - to oppose the devaluation of man's physical nature. By the middle of the eighteenth century the effort of philosophy was to place man, with his variety of physical manifestations throughout the world, within a systemic order of nature. Voegelin perceives the problem of race as the epitome of the difficulties presented by this new theoretical approach. Published in Vienna in 1936, Voegelin's work offers a critical examination of the most prominent European theories of state and constitutional law of the period, and provides a political and historical analysis of the Austrian situation. A critique of Kelsen's pure theory of law lies at its heart.