Carl Schmitt

Carl Schmitt (1888–1985) was a German jurist and political theorist known for theories of sovereignty, dictatorship, and political enmity. He joined the Nazi Party in 1933 and later became a prominent subject of debate over intellectual complicity with authoritarianism.

Sovereignty: Supreme authority within a political order, understood as the power to make and enforce binding decisions. Schmitt defines sovereignty through the authority to decide when ordinary law cannot govern.
Weimar Constitution: The constitution of Germany’s Weimar Republic, in force from 1919 until the Nazi regime dismantled it. Schmitt’s constitutional writings addressed the institutions and emergency provisions of this republic.
Hans Kelsen: An Austrian jurist who developed the Pure Theory of Law and defended constitutional review by a specialized court. Kelsen’s norm-centered legal theory opposed Schmitt’s emphasis on sovereign decision.
Nazi seizure of power: The rapid dismantling of German democracy and establishment of Nazi dictatorship in 1933. Schmitt supported the new regime and supplied legal arguments for its consolidation.
State of exception: A situation in which a government suspends or exceeds ordinary legal rules in response to an asserted emergency. It is the exceptional situation that exposes, for Schmitt, who actually holds sovereign power.
Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution: A Weimar constitutional provision that allowed the president to take emergency measures and suspend certain civil rights. Its emergency powers became a practical test case for Schmitt’s theory of presidential dictatorship.
Hermann Heller: A German constitutional theorist and Social Democrat who defended democratic sovereignty and criticized Schmitt’s authoritarian constitutionalism. Heller directly challenged Schmitt’s account of dictatorship and the Weimar constitution.
Enabling Act of 1933: A German law that allowed Hitler’s government to legislate without the Reichstag, effectively ending parliamentary democracy. Schmitt defended the legal transformation that gave the Nazi government unchecked legislative authority.
Political theology: The study of how political concepts and institutions relate to theological ideas and structures. Schmitt traces the structure of modern sovereignty to secularized theological concepts.
Political Romanticism: Schmitt’s 1919 critique of romanticism as a mode of thought that replaces political decision with aesthetic occasion. This early book shows his opposition to treating politics as endless conversation without commitment.

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