Loading...
8th out of 11 books
—
5 voters
My rating:
add to my books
Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty
Written in the intense political and intellectual tumult of the early years of the Weimar Republic, Political Theology develops the distinctive theory of sovereignty that made Carl Schmitt one of the most significant and controversial political theorists of the twentieth century.Focusing on the relationships among political leadership, the norms of the legal order, and the...more
Paperback, 116 pages
Published
January 15th 2006
by University of Chicago Press
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
209)
Forget the neoconservatives. Their bogus neo-Platonism predicated on the noble lie was a merely half backed version of their somewhat inscrutable master, Leo Strauss. No, here it is---the description of the realm of realpolitik as it is practiced by our current administration. Back in the 1920’s, Schmitt formulated what is to my mind the most succinct version of the nature of the political in its raw form: “Sovereign is he who decides on the exception.” Such is the first line of the book and...more
Schwab correctly calls Schmitt; The Hobbes of the 20th century.
In this book Schmitt tries to define his concept of the political sovereignty. He believes that first of all we need to define the 'exception' -not the norm- to grasp the meaning of this concept. "sovereign is he who decides on the exception." (p.5) All laws are 'situational laws.' Because in the case of emergency there exist no law. "There is no norm that is applicable to chaos." (p. 13) At the end of the d...more
In this book Schmitt tries to define his concept of the political sovereignty. He believes that first of all we need to define the 'exception' -not the norm- to grasp the meaning of this concept. "sovereign is he who decides on the exception." (p.5) All laws are 'situational laws.' Because in the case of emergency there exist no law. "There is no norm that is applicable to chaos." (p. 13) At the end of the d...more
Three stars for illuminating my understanding of juridical theory and political sovereignty in Weimar Germany. Negative two stars for literally espousing fascism. I look forward to using Schmitt in the future, and was very pleased to read him firsthand after a semester of coming across him in dimly lit footnotes and editorial asides, but Christ, come on. Still--still! Fascinating, compellingly argued, and VERY elegantly written. I can see why Benjamin kept up a correspondence with the guy. Gotta...more
Schmitt argues that sovereignty cannot be possessed by the law or norms, but must, in the ultimate instance, be possessed by man. It is in the exception that sovereignty is formed. Liberal constitutional order tries to repress the sovereign, but it cannot. A state of exception cannot be legal circumscribed in advance. Schmitt argues that God was present in the world until the rise of Deism (and rationalism), which took God out of the world and turned the 'miracle' into the 'exception' in the nat...more
This book laid out a distinct political program that helped lead the way to the Third Reich's lunatic dictatorship and underpins the rationalization of any leader who acts outside the law (including several of the last American Presidents, various mob bosses, vigilantes, and world leaders all over the globe). I say all this first, lest we forget the potential dangers of this kind of thinking. But there is a solid and undeniable truth in what Schmitt says on page 30, "Every concrete juristic...more
really interesting treatment of executive power. on the eve of political breakdown, of a moment of "exception" for which the written laws offer no remedy, he says the executive needs the freedom to make decisions. problem is, it can go both ways depending on who's in charge. he assumes that the executive respects the rule of law in all other respects, and reluctantly acts to decide on exceptional events. but what if the executive is, like, bush?
In this book Schmitt explains the contradictions of an immanent legal system whereby the state of exception becomes concealed underneath a veil of laws - yet, it is the state of exception that determines the sovereign, and only with the emergence of such a state, i.e. WW2, can one observe the transcendent authority of the sovereign. Schmitt, who has been a Professor of Law in Nazi Germany, declares that a dictatorship is the only meaningful method of governance that relieves us from such contrad...more
Pedro José
added it
Again, like all Schmitt's works, this is a difficult read. I would say it is one of the most difficult of his writings. However, it cements one of the key concepts of his thought: the fundamental nature of theology and politics beyond anything else.
To say more without writing ten pages would be insufficient. Read the book, it's fascinating.
To say more without writing ten pages would be insufficient. Read the book, it's fascinating.
This is a very short, interesting work of Schmitt. I still think 'The concept of political" is more fun and representative, though.
view 1 comment
yay for throwing out the rules.
Overrated Nazi go home.
And more...
Brosephicles
marked it as to-read
Josh
marked it as to-read
Meaghen
marked it as to-read
Herkots
added it
Conor
marked it as to-read
Chris
marked it as to-read
Eli
marked it as to-read
Temsgen eng
marked it as to-read
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers Also Enjoyed
Share This Book
Carl Schmitt was a German jurist, Catholic philosopher, political theorist, and professor of law. Schmitt published several essays, influential in the 20th century and beyond, on the mentalities that surround the effective wielding of political power. His ideas have attracted the attention of numerous philosophers and political theorists, including Walter Benjamin, Leo Strauss, Jacques Derrida, Ét...more
More about Carl Schmitt...
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“The exception is more interesting than the rule. The rule proves nothing; the exception proves everything. In the exception the power of real life breaks through the crust of a mechanism that has become torpid by repetition.”
—
4 people liked it
“All significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts not only because of their historical development - in which they were transferred from theology to the theory of the state, whereby, for example, the omnipotent god became the omnipotent lawgiver - but also because of their systematic structure, the recognition of which is necessary for a sociological consideration of these concepts. The exception in jurisprudence is analogous to the miracle in theology. Only by being aware of this analogy can we appreciate the manner in which the philosophical ideas of the state developed in the last centuries.”
—
1 person liked it
More quotes…
