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. Moreover, it offers an assessment of this most sophisti- cated of fascist theorists without attempting either to apologize for or demo- nize him. Schmitt's eventual collusion with the Nazis has long discouraged any serious engagement with the critique of liberalism that he undertook dur- ing the crisis-ridden Weimar Republic. However, contemporary political conditions, such as disaffection with liberalism and the rise of extremist political organizations, have rendered Schmitt's work both relevant and insightful. Schmitt's Weimar writings confront the role of modern technology as it finds expression through the principles and practices of liberalism. Just as technology is characterized by both the abstractly formal logic of Enlighten- ment science and the irrational will toward domination generated by mass exhilaration and fear, so liberalism, according to Schmitt, lays out abstractly neutral rules to govern a social reality comprising a plurality of mutually irrational and incommensurable subjective perspectives. John McCormick examines why technology becomes a rallying cry for both right- and left- wing intellectuals at times when liberalism appears anachronistic, and he shows the continuities between Weimar's ideological debates and those of our own age. By setting Schmitt's work in the context of contemporaries such as We- ber, Lukacs, Benjamin, Heidegger, and Adorno as well as earlier figures such as Machiavelli, Hobbes, Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche, John McCormick has furnished philosophers, historians, and political theorists with the most comprehensive account of Schmitt available. CARL SCHMITT'S CRITIQUE OF LIBERALISM MODERN EUROPEAN PHILOSOPHY General Editor Robert B. Pippin, University of Chicago Advisory Board Gary Gutting, University of Notre Dame Rolf-Peter Horstmann, Humboldt University, Berlin Mark Sacks, University of Essex This series contains a range of high-quality books on philosophers, topics, and schools of thought prominent in the Kantian and post- Kantian European tradition. It is nonsectarian in approach and methodology, and it includes both introductory and more specialized treatments of these thinkers and topics. Authors are encouraged to interpret the boundaries of the modern European tradition in a broad way and in primarily philosophical rather than historical terms. Some Recent Titles Frederick A. Olafson: What Is a Human Being? Stanley Rosen: The Mask of Enlightenment: Nietzsche's Zarathustra Robert C. Scharff: Comte after Positivism F.C.T. Moore: Bergson: Thinking Backwards Charles Larmore: The Morals of Modernity Robert B. Pippin: Idealism as Modernism: Hegelian Variations Daniel Conway: Nietzsche's Dangerous Game CARL SCHMITT'S CRITIQUE OF LIBERALISM AGAINST POLITICS AS TECHNOLOGY JOHN P. McCORMICK University of New Hampshire w CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521591676 © John P. McCormick 1997 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1997 First paperback edition 1999 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data McCormick, John P., 1966- Carl Schmitt's critique of liberalism : against politics as technology /John P. McCormick. p. cm. - (Modern European philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-521-59167-8 1. Schmitt, Carl, 1888- . 2. Liberalism. 3. Technology and civilization. I. Title. II. Series. JC263.S34M385 1997 320'.092-dc21 97-12109 CIP ISBN-13 978-0-521-59167-6 hardback ISBN-10 0-521-59167-8 hardback ISBN-13 978-0-521-66457-8 paperback ISBN-10 0-521-66457-8 paperback Transferred to digital printing 2005 FOR MY PARENTS, J.M. AND B.T. MCCORMICK CONTENTS Acknowledgments PaSe *x Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 I Between Critical Theory and Political Existentialism: Schmitt's Confrontation with Technology 1 Antinomies of Technical Thought: Attempting to Transcend Weber's Categories of Modernity 31 2 Myth as Antidote to the "Age of Neutralizations": Nietzsche and Cultural Conflict as Response to Technology 83 II Liberalism as Technology's Infiltration of Politics 3 Emergency Powers 121 4 Representation 157 5 Law 206 6 The State 249 vii Vlll CONTENTS III Liberalism and Fascism/Technology and Politics Epilogue and Summary 293 Conclusion 302 Works Cited 315 Index 343