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Kompass

Thinkers and political figures

Newspaper photograph of Carl Schmitt, 1929.

Portrait: Press photograph, 1929, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab) · Public domain

Carl Schmitt

Country
Germany
Era
1888–1985
Tradition
Authoritarian constitutional theory

The most serious theorist of authoritarian government, who defined politics as the distinction between friend and enemy and argued that sovereignty lies with whoever can suspend the law. He joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and supplied legal arguments for its rule.

01

Documented positions

Documented positions come from the sources listed. Similarity is this project’s inference from those positions, and is a much weaker claim.

  • Defined the political as the distinction between friend and enemy, prior to any question of morality or economics
  • Held that "sovereign is he who decides on the exception" — the power to suspend law is the core of sovereignty
  • Argued that liberal parliamentarism cannot decide, and dissolves into endless discussion during a crisis
  • Held that democracy requires homogeneity of the people and is compatible with dictatorship but not with liberalism
  • Joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and provided legal justification for the 1934 purge and for antisemitic legislation
  • Never recanted after 1945 and was barred from academic posts for the rest of his life
02

Where it sits on each dimension

Personal liberty

6

Evidence: Well documented

Tradition and change

14

Evidence: Documented

Nation and the world

96

Evidence: Well documented

Religion and the state

60

Evidence: Documented

Power and its limits

4

Evidence: Well documented

Crime and punishment

10

Evidence: Documented

Dimensions left unscored, for want of evidence: Wealth and inequality, The state in the economy, Environment and growth

Sources

  • Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political · 1932
  • Carl Schmitt, Political Theology · 1922
  • Reinhard Mehring, Carl Schmitt: A Biography · Polity · 2014

Last verified: