Die politische Anatomie demokratischer Repräsentation

摘要

Does the idea of the “body politic” survive the death of the king? The answer usually given is“no”. This article claims however that the “body politic” indeed lives on in modern democratictimes. Nowadays it is the parliament which occupies the king’s place. To substantiate thisthesis the article discusses three questions: Why are members of parliament free from legalpersecution? Why are parliamentary debates public? And why do initiatives end with the parliamentaryterm? The answers given are brief: parliamentary immunity refers to the notion ofthe inviolability and sanctity of the political body; via public debates democracy’s two bodiesspeak with each other; and the principle of parliamentary discontinuity regulates birth, deathand succession of the body politic in democratic times.