Pluralism of the Political. From Carl Schmitt to Hannah Arendt

Abstrakt

In trying to assess Hannah Arendt’s approach to the problem of pluralism of the political it is illuminating to contrast her views with Carl Schmitt’s concern with pluralism. The author argues that in renewing Schmitt’s question “what is politics?”, Arendt turned herself into a political theorist and that in trying to answer this question she came up with the conclusion that politics rests on the fact of human plurality. In relating Arendt and Schmitt in this way one has to keep in mind, however, that their real and substantive affinities have always been qualified by equally real and substantial disagreements. Careful scrutiny reveals that Arendt was certainly familiar with many of Schmitt’s writings and that she regarded him highly as an outstanding scholar, a jurist with ingenious theories, and a most able defender of his views. But she constantly qualified her praise for she has also seen Schmitt as a scholar who did his utmost to supply the Nazis with ideas and techniques.