Carl Schmitt and the concept of the political Debate over method in Weimar: Political decision “In one way or another ‘political’ is generally juxtaposed to ’state’ or at least is brought into relation with it. The state thus appears as something political, the political as something pertaining to the state – obviously an unsatisfactory circle… The concept of the state presupposes the concept of the political”, 20-21.

The political and the state The political can not be defined in relation to the state The political can not be defined in relation to society The political can only be defined by looking at specifically political categories As in all key intellectual endeavors, these have to rely on an independent distinction

The concept of the political The political: “The specific political distinction to which political actions and motives can be reduced to is that between friend and enemy. This provides a definition in the sense of a criterion and not an exhaustive definition or one indicative of substantial content”, 26.

Friend and Enemy What does this distinction tell us about politics? Denotes outmost degree of intensity of union or separation It derives from a concrete situation and cannot be decided from outside The enemy is something different, stranger, but does not need to be morally bad or esthetically ugly

Extreme case “The enemy is not merely any competitor or just any partner of a conflict in general. He is also not the private adversary whom one hates. An enemy exists only when, at least potentially, one fighting collectivity of people confronts a similar collectivity. The enemy is solely the public enemy, because everything that has a relationship to such a collectivity of men, particularly to a whole nation, becomes public by virtue of such a relationship”, 28. Real possibility of physical killing in public context: exceptionality from which real life derives its political tension

Relation to other antitheses The political is a degree of intensity of association or dissociation It can derive its energy from all human endeavors, and is thus blind as to the substance of the association/dissociation It is so strong that all other antitheses are subordinated to it in the extreme case It is the decisive entity: a community exists politically only as long as it is capable of making the friend/enemy distinction

Political Anthropology “One could test all theories of state and political ideas according to their anthropology … all genuine political theories presuppose man to be evil, i.e., by no means unproblematic but a dangerous and dynamic being”, 61.

Liberalism vs politics The liberal idea of politics Liberalism defines the political in terms of either ethics) and economics (market competition) (private morality Depoliticized politics (e.g. battle is competition) It uses the language of neutrality It aims to take the correct (as opposed to the existential) decision

Liberalism vs politics The liberal state Based on individualism: terminus a quo and not terminus ad quem It is a negation of the political Leads to distrust of political forces without offering positive theory of the state Based on compromise and contradictions

Liberalism vs politics Liberalism and humanity As long as politics exists, the world is a pluriverse and not a universe “Humanity as such cannot wage war because it has no enemy, at least not on this planet. The concept of humanity exclude the concept of the enemy, because the enemy does not cease to be a human being”, 54. Instrument of imperialism: world embracing technical and economic organisation does not work automatically

Liberalism vs politics There is no liberal politics, but only a liberal critique of politics However, “this allegedly non political and apparently even antipolitical system serves existing or newly emerging friend-and-enemy groupings and cannot escape the logic of the political”, 76 Hence: “State and politics cannot be exterminated. The world will not become depoliticized with the aid of definitions and constructions, all of which circle the polarity of ethics and economics”, 78.

Weimar, liberalism and the political “Everywhere in political history, in foreign as well as in domestic politics, the incapacity or the unwillingness to make this distinction is a symptom of the political end”, 68