Carl Schmitt's Critique of Liberalism: Against Politics as Technology

by John P. McCormick

• ISBN13: 9780521664578
• ISBN10: 0521664578
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-06-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is the first in-depth critical appraisal in English of the political, legal, and cultural writings of Carl Schmitt, perhaps this century's most brilliant critic of liberalism. It offers an assessment of this most sophisticated of fascist theorists without attempting either to apologise for or demonise him. Schmitt's Weimar writings confront the role of technology as it finds expression through the principles and practices of liberalism. Contemporary political conditions such as disaffection with liberalism and the rise of extremist political organizations have rendered Schmitt's work both relevant and insightful. John McCormick examines why technology becomes a rallying cry for both right- and left-wing intellectuals at times when liberalism appears anachronistic, and shows the continuities between Weimar's ideological debates and those of our own age.

Author Biography

John P. McCormick is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Abbreviations	xi
Introduction	1	(30)
I Between Critical Theory and Political Existentialism: Schmitt's Confrontation with Technology
Antinomies of Technical Thought: Attempting to Transcend Weber's Categories of Modernity	31	(52)
Myth as Antidote to the ``Age of Neutralizations'': Nietzsche and Cultural Conflict as Response to Technology	83	(38)
II Liberalism as Technology's Infiltration of Politics
Emergency Powers	121	(36)
Representation	157	(49)
Law	206	(43)
The State	249	(44)
III Liberalism and Fascism/Technology and Politics
Epilogue and Summary	293	(9)
Conclusion	302	(13)
Works Cited	315	(28)
Index	343