Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty

This book was becoming too influential to remain out of print for long, and its first sentence alone --"sovereign is he who decides on the exception"-- has likely been cited by more scholars than have ever actually read the second sentence. Still, though influenced by second-hand readings of Schmitt, most scholars manage to get quite a bit right about Schmitt's thesis, if only because it is simple, aphoristic and open-ended. Whatever its merits-- and there are many-- there is much to take exception with in Schmitt's book and in the concepts it has influenced. The notion of "the exception" requires particularly rigorous clarification because it has too often been elevated to the political-theological realm, been imbued with a fierce alterity or normless negativity, and sometime de-secularized as an equivalent of a miracle. Part of this is conflation of two senses of "exceptional": (1) "Norm vs. exception", which is a juridical distinction; and (2) the notion of "ordinary vs. extraordinary," which is more of a cultural or aesthetic distinction. The first of these-- the more banal definition-- is the one that is relevant to legal issues [OED: "The action of excepting (a person or thing, a particular case) from the scope of a proposition, rule, etc.; the state or fact of being so excepted. Something abnormal or unusual; contrasted with the rule"]. In political-theological terms, however, "The exception in jurisprudence is analogous the miracle in theology." Carl Schmitt, Political Theology: Four Chapters On The Concept Of Sovereignty (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1985), 36. This is fine as an analogy, but Schmitt-- elsewhere rigorous about separating politics, aesthetics, economics, etc.-- here drags "the miracle" back into the juridical realm. In this way Schmitt's theory that "Sovereign is he who decides [in and upon] the state of exception" can be rephrased in Weberian terms as the "charismatic" exceptional: a "certain quality" "not accessible to the ordinary person." The personal qualities unique also claim that this person, in extraordinary times will be revealed to be the true sovereign. This lends itself to the unreflective conflation of the two senses of the word "exception" and inflects sovereignty with the cult of charisma.

After many years, Carl Schmitt's works have finally reached the shores of the English-speaking world. Having been isolated by much of the scholarly community due to his complicity and support for Nazi Germany, it is only in recent decades that his works have garnered interest. Ideas Political Theology, like many of his most famous works, was written during a prolific period of his life in Weimar Germany. Indeed, this book bears the marks and concerns of the fragile political system in which he lived. Disenchanted with parliamentary democracy and the legal reasoning of his time, Schmitt develops in this book a devastatingly sharp critique of liberal democracy and legal normativism--a critque which has become very pertinent to our current political climate (2006). In place of this, Schmitt probes into the historical and ideological framework of the state and politics so as to discover its essential characteristics, which he argues is defined and circumscribed by the exception. In short, the exception is a moment of true decision by a soveriegn, by which the legal norm is created. For, as the famous opening lines of the book proclaim, "Sovereign is he who decides on the exception." Translation and Introduction Now, George Schwab has done an excellent translation of this work so as to make it clear and readable. As such, I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in Carl Schmitt, early 20th century political theory, Weimar Germany, or recent political works by Giorgio Agamben and Chantal Mouffe. Moreover, I also recommend reading the foreword and introduction, which provide a clear and succint overview of Schmitt's political theory. Lastly, Schmitt's works are not very accessible to a quick reading. I recommend going over this book very carefully and thoroughly--best not before bedtime. I would also recommend his other works. I have found Schmitt to be terribly and sometimes frightfully insightful and believe that his ideas are essential to understanding modern political institutions, practices, and ideology.

The boring and obvious meaning of the title is that the modern conceptions of sovereignty--for instance, in the us constitution, where the sole individual is the executive and the collective of representatives is the legislative-is the legacy or secularization (however that occurs) of formerly religious. The simpler argument obscures a paradox: the sovereign himself stands outside the legal order (Ordnung) that he creates. Hence: the sovereign decides on the exception, ie, what stands outside the legal order. The problem of repetition, and the state as machine (machina machinarum) is solved by the heroic creation ex nihilo of the sovereign. In Hegel's conception, the sovereign is a living, breathing human being (if only as a figurehead) because there exists always the possibility of a life and death struggle.