German roots of the theory of pluralism

The theory of pluralism has been developed mainly in our century, but its theoretical and practical roots go back far into the last century. Pluralism has flourished in the Anglo-Saxon world, but even though there is no tradition of pluralism in German history, some German thinkers developed ideas which came remarkably close to later English and American pluralists. They opposed political authoritarianism, the Hegelian concept of the ‘state as such’, and the notion of Roman law as the legal guideline. Georg Beseler and Otto Gierke tried to show a German common law tradition instead. Later Hugo Preuss came to bold democratic interpretations of this theory which put him at odds not only with other legal scholars, but with the Prussian state as well. The article deals with this development, as well as with the reception of Gierke's works by the English pluralists. I would like to express my gratitude to Jens Drews and Rick Woodward for their most helpful remarks on an earlier draft of this paper.