Parkhomenko, R. N. Carl Schmitt’s Dychotomy of the Political

Abstract: The article is devoted to Carl Schmitt’s (1888-1985) theory of politics mostly developed by him in his two works, ‘Political Theology’ (1922) and ‘The Concept of the Political’ (1927). According to Schmitt, the concept of the political can be defined only when we establish specific political criteria and categories. As a particular ‘political distinction’, Schmitt introduces the terms ‘friend’ and ‘enemy’ to denote the highest degree of intensity of connection and disconnection, association and dissociation. To his opinion, such a distinction can exist both in theory and practice disregarding whether moral, esthetical, economic or other kinds of distinction are used simultaneously. At the same time, this isn’t about the moral or esthetic evaluation of the ‘enemy’. The most important point here is that the enemy acts as the ‘Other’ with regard to a particular political system. In the course of researching Schmitt’s political concepts, it is shown that the definition of the ‘political’ described with the help of the ‘friend-enemy’ dichotomy defined the entire process of further theory development. All his life Schmitt believed into a need to create a politically strong or even authoritarian type of a state institution. Such a belief actually influenced both his concept of philosophy of law and made him despite liberal traditions of the West.

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