Gesamtverfassung

Helmut Ridder's idea of the ‘Gesamtverfassung’ of a society insists on our collective self-organisation. No state can take the autonomous organisation of social freedom from us. Ridder spells out what this means for the individual spheres of society in his extremely comprehensive work on constitutional law. In doing so, he arrives at insights that are still valid today about the necessary democratisation of the economy, universities, the general public and how they form their opinions, and the entire state apparatus. This volume systematically demonstrates the topicality of Ridder's writings, not least his provocative magnum opus ‘Die soziale Ordnung des Grundgesetzes’ (The Social Order of the Basic Law), in various subject areas: from the socialisation (of housing, for example), which is once again the subject of much discussion, to the dilemmas of militant democracy. The volume is aimed at all those interested in law and politics, from academia to social movements. The authors are all experienced legal scholars and practitioners of constitutional law.