Carl Schmitt

Fascism has been one of the most destructive ideas ever tested in the real world. Because of this, it is crucial to understand the theory, logic, and arguments that have made it seem, for some, like an appealing political system.

The idea of fascism stands on a few principles: it rejects the notion that violence is not an appropriate political tool, requires a clear sovereign, is in constant need of an enemy to combat, and requires a thick conception of the nation. All of these ideas spring forth most clearly from the Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt, someone whose ideas made Nazi Germany possible and provided a theoretical framework for any leader or state wishing to try their hand at the system.

Carl Schmitt is a critical figure in modern political thought because he developed an incredibly destructive critique of liberalism as a political model. Schmitt's work is a frontal assault against the idea of liberalism. In conducting his assault, he brings into focus several severe problems with the liberal state:

• It denies the presence of a clear sovereign.
• It refuses to see politics as a friend/enemy distinction.
• It creates opportunities for individuals who wish to destroy it.

While Schmitt's ideas may seem extremist to a first-time reader, few other theorists will so precisely show the flaws with a liberal system of governance as Carl Schmitt.

Carl Schmitt biography

Fig. 1 – Carl Schmitt.

Born in 1888, Carl Schmitt grew up in a rapidly changing Germany. After World War I ended, the Germans established the Weimar Republic. In this environment, Schmitt developed his theories about politics and law.

He was a senior member of the Nazi Party and a German lawyer and political theorist. Schmitt spent much time writing about how to use political power effectively.

After the war, Schmitt was tried for his role in Nazi Germany, but he was ultimately acquitted. He spent the rest of his life in exile, first in France and then Spain. He died in 1985 at the age of 96.

Schmitt's role in the Nazi party

Schmitt became a member of the Nazi Party on May 1, 1933. Within days, he backed the party's decision to burn books by Jewish authors, praised the destruction of "anti-German" material, and called for a broader "cleanse", including works by authors influenced by Jewish views.

Schmitt was named editor-in-chief of the German Jurists' Journal, a Nazi journal for attorneys, in June 1934. In July, he released "The Leader Protects the Law", a justification for the Night of the Long Knives political murders based on Hitler's authority as the "highest form of administrative justice".

He involved himself in conventions and the academic society in Berlin at the time. Mainly, he served as the chairman of a law teachers' convention in 1936, when he asked that German law be cleansed and that all Jewish scientists' writings be marked as such.

These ideas made Schmitt very unpopular during the Weimar Republic era, but they would become even more controversial after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. As a supporter of Nazi Germany, Schmitt helped justify some of the regime's most oppressive policies, including the Holocaust. He eventually fell out of favour with the Nazis and was arrested in 1945.

His most important roles were: Chair of the Committee for State and Administrative Law, Prussian State Council and Head of the Association of National Socialist German Jurists

Carl Schmitt after World War II

American soldiers arrested Schmitt in 1945, and he spent more than a year in an internment camp before returning to his hometown. He never regretted his role in establishing the Nazi regime and opposed every attempt to destroy nazism.

Despite his exclusion from the academic and political mainstream, he continued his studies in international law from the 1950s onwards.

Carl Schmitt's political theory

When studying Schmitt's theory, it is essential to consider his context. The political climate he participated in made his theory essentially aggressive and straightforward to the political relationships between the state and its enemies.

In his essay "On Dictatorship", he established the need for an authority that decides how to apply the law for it to be effective in issues like interpretation and determination. Here, he defined sovereignty as the authority that decides on the state of exception.

Schmitt defines democracy as a political system characterised by the ruler's identity and rule. Ruler and ruled are identical if and only when the rulers and the ruled share the identity that the community has chosen to turn into the basis of its political identity. This happens when deciding on its enemies.

In this "state of exception," the sovereign is responsible for creating normality. Schmitt phrased it as building the political identity of the community through the suppression of the normalcy interrupted by those enemies of the state.

But what happens when that normalcy is interrupted? He answered this question by contemplating the sovereign dictatorship as an enemy of democracy, as dictators don't defend the constitution and try to create a new rule of law in the people's name.

His concept of sovereignty and dictatorship brings the idea that a ruler is central to democracy because it exercises as long as a democratic constitution is created. When not, a dictatorship comes in place.

Schmitt's political notion relied on the distinction between friends and enemies of the state. Even though an individual might have enemies, the personal implications are not a political phenomenon. That's why the distinction between enemies and friends was purely public and, therefore, an issue of the nation.

Carl Schmitt: The Concept of Political

Schmitt considers "the political" more important than any other domain, such as the economy, because it is the most fundamental to identity. As was previously mentioned, Schmitt's conceptual realm of state sovereignty and autonomy bases itself on the contrast between friend and adversary. As Schmitt says:

This distinction is made "existentially". This means that the enemy is whoever is "in a specially intense way, existentially something different and alien so that in the extreme case conflicts with him are possible."²

In this essay, Schmitt considers the collectivisation of friendship and hatred as the core of politics. He claims the government must establish political foes out of a legitimate concern for the state's security rather than moral intuitions.

The recognition and destruction of the adversary became a crucial component of the national identity under the Third Reich, where this political idea was influential.

Carl Schmitt: Political Theology

Fig. 2 – Carl Schmitt Political Theology.

During his time as a professor at the University of Bonn in 1922, he published Political Theology. In this book, Schmitt solidified his authoritarian beliefs with the now-famous definition: "Sovereign is he who decides on the exception."³

Sovereign, understood as a supreme authority, was a conflicting concept for those who believed that no one could come before the constitution. However, under political hostility, how can the sovereign uphold decisions not contemplated in the constitution? And how can the laws tell what's the exception if enemies arose in different and new situations?

This is explained in the book through the powers of the ruler: The sovereign can determine what an exception is and how to exercise control to save the group's identity in the face of enemies.

Carl Schmitt criticises any effort to discredit the sovereign authority provided by the constitution and liberal institutions as legal orders require a sovereign to enforce its framework.

Carl Schmitt's critique of liberalism

Carl Schmitt is known as the most critical enemy of liberalism. His work on the state of exception was used to defend some of the most horrific human rights violations during World War II and also stated a precedent for decades to come on the exercise of law as the supreme power in a country.

Schmitt was worried about what happens when a nation faces enemies that the law isn't prepared for. That's how his concept of sovereignty came to life and his main critique of liberalism.

As long as liberal governments allow the freedom of thinking about other ideologies and policies, they will constantly be threatened with replacement, as Nazism replaced the Weimar Republic. Without systems to prevent the enemies' growth, they are vulnerable to destruction.

According to Schmitt, this is a liberal absurdity that the government should treat as political hostility. The state must fight to keep and preserve its identity. However, what is the basis of this identity?

Usually, the people's identity is thought to be the majority's will. However, Schmitt believed that if a majority can overrule a minority and identify its will with the people's will, then it is also possible a minority can impose their will as the nation's identity.

Schmitt acknowledged that legitimate political rule must appeal to the people's will. Regardless, no citizen has more of a right than any other to hold political power. Therefore, every citizen should participate on equal terms in exercising political rule.