‘Political Romanticism’ is a lesser known work by the early Schmitt. As an early work, it is also particularly abstruse. However, it is very much an important insight into what Schmitt believes is the metaphysical ailment plaguing liberalism: romanticism. In this seminar, we will look at Schmitt’s account of romanticism as ‘subjectified occasionalism’ fortified by the conditions of liberal individualism and connect his criticism of romanticism to his concept of the political and the importance of living an existentially meaningful life.

The Europeanist Society and the Austrian Society are delighted to host Member of the European Parliament Lukas Mandl for a talk on European geopolitics, the urgent need for courage, and the dire consequences of inaction.

Lukas Mandl served as Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence, and currently chairs the European Parliament’s Delegation to the Korean Peninsula. He is also President of the Altiero Spinelli Group and the European Federalist Movement Austria.

Over the last 3 weeks, we have observed the praise that Schmitt heaped on Hobbes. However, Schmitt’s ‘The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes’ demonstrates not only Schmitt’s own significantly more authoritarian political theory but also puts Schmitt’s antisemitism on full display. This week, we will examine Schmitt’s critique of the distinction between private and public spheres. We will also examine his understanding of organic political unity.

‘The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy’ is less well known compared to the texts explored in the previous two weeks. However, it contains Schmitt’s most direct and sustained attack on liberal democracy as a theoretical ideal. The seminar will explore Schmitt’s criticism that liberal democracy is an oxymoron, paying close attention to Schmitt’s understanding of liberalism and democracy respectively. We will then connect Schmitt’s understanding of democracy with his concept of the political and sovereignty.

In ‘The Concept of the Political’, Schmitt presents the friend-enemy distinction, arguably his most well known political concept. This seminar seeks to unpack Schmitt’s full defence of his agonistic account of politics as an existential fact of life. We will also connect the friend-enemy distinction to Schmitt’s concept of sovereignty discussed last week. After unpacking Schmitt’s argument, we will shift focus to Schmitt’s somewhat unexpected quasi-Marxian condemnation of economic warfare and his critique of liberalism as an ideology which seeks to dispense with politics.

‘Political Theology’ is most well known as the book where Schmitt offers his famous definition of the sovereign as he who decides the exception. However, sandwiched between byzantine early 20th century German jurisprudential debates and commentary about obscure anti-modern Catholic reactionaries are less well known but equally important concepts. This seminar will explore Schmitt’s concepts of the state of exception, sovereignty, and decisionism. We will also spend some time examining Schmitt’s critique of the liberal account of the rule of law within ‘Political Theology’.

Carl Schmitt and his work has been slowly clawing their way towards the political and academic mainstream in the English speaking world since his work began being translated into English in the 1980s. The ‘Crown Jurist of the Third Reich’ has become an important interlocutor for a sizable number of significant academics and political figures from Habermas, Derrida, and Agamben to Dugin, Vermuele, and JD Vance. In this first seminar, we will explore who Carl Schmitt was and how this contextualises his work.