The Concept of the Political by C. Schmitt

Review

For Schmitt the existence of the friend enemy model makes politics necessary. Antagonism is also needed for such an antithesis to occur. However, none of these theories can be empirically proven and it can be rationally argued that politics can occur without this model. Hobbes, Locke and other social contract theorists without present different reasons for the creation of a state and hence subsequent role of politics. We see in the modern world that there are countries like Switzerland who remain neutral and do not work on a friend-enemy model. Swiss people are involved in politics though. Antagonism is not a prerequisite necessarily. We can make a model of the political based on love rather than hate. Such presuppositions are a result of the authors thought process and it is very difficult for these models to be seen in world.

Schmitt later goes on to criticize Liberalism. Schmitt feels that individualism is not a powerful concept because it is does not provide any justification for the individual to give up his freedom for the state. However, in doing so Schmitt talks about the atrractiveness of the War of ancient times, such a claim is problematic because he tends to beautify ancient wars rather than showing them as brutal. Overall, Schmitt presents a good case and a good explaination of the political according to him but he does not dwell too much into the specific conflicts and only looks at conflicts in general hence his points are often not illustrated.