Carl Schmitt (German jurist and political theorist) Add a review

Carl Schmitt (11 July 1888 – 7 April 1985) was a German jurist, author, and political theorist. He held various positions on Nazi councils including serving on the Prussian State Council, the Academy for German Law, and as the president of the National Socialist Association of Legal Professionals. However, he later lost favour among senior Nazi officials and was ultimately removed from his official positions within the party.

Schmitt wrote extensively about the effective wielding of political power. An authoritarian conservative theorist, he was noted as a critic of parliamentary democracy, liberalism, and cosmopolitanism. His works covered political theory, legal theory, continental philosophy, and political theology. However, they are controversial, mainly due to his intellectual support for, and active involvement with, Nazism. In 1933, Schmitt joined the Nazi Party and utilized his legal and political theories to provide ideological justification for the regime.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy writes that "Schmitt was an acute observer and analyst of the weaknesses of liberal constitutionalism and liberal cosmopolitanism. But there can be little doubt that his preferred cure turned out to be infinitely worse than the disease." His ideas remain highly influential, with many scholars arguing he has influenced modern governance in China and Russia, as well as the movements of neoconservatism and Trumpism.