Democracy in Its Essence analyzes Hans Kelsen’s political theory as a pluralist, relativist, constitutional, proceduralist, and liberal theory of representative democracy, characterized by its strong recall to the values of tolerance, responsibility, and respect toward “the other” as well as to the idea of politics as space for compromise.
Sara Lagi's book offers a serious, clear and very elegant introduction to Hans Kelsen's theory of democracy. The English-speaking public did not yet have a work like this within their reach, which was unfortunate for an author who was not only a great jurist but also a leading political thinker in the twentieth century, as Lagi's book proves."
Sara Lagi's book takes into consideration the democratic theory of one of the most relevant legal and political theorists of the past century, and identifies four main themes of his theory: pluralism, constitutionalism, relativism, and proceduralism. I consider this work as a well-balanced and thoroughly documented piece of academic research. Therefore it can be highly recommended to anyone interested in reading an effective overview of Kelsen’s political thought.
Democracy in its Essence: Hans Kelsen as a Political Thinker, is an important book-length study of why Kelsen deserves to be re-read in the twenty-first century.
Sara Lagi is associate professor of history of political thought at the University of Turin.