The Definite and the Dubious: Carl Schmitts Influence on Conservative Political and Legal Theory in the US1

Joseph W. Bendersky
If some of the recent scholarship on Carl Schmitt is correct, there are insidious forces at work in America of which everyone in the country is completely unaware. Most people are also oblivious to the fact that behind these secret forces threatening America stands the dangerous ghost of Carl Schmitt. While it is at least partially facetious to introduce the subject in this manner, those sounding the alarm about this alleged danger are absolutely serious. One refers to the profound blindness among contemporary American legal theorists that risks rendering American legal thought provincial and irrelevant.2 Moreover, those making such extraordinary claims are neither political fringe elements nor conspiracy quacks. They hold positions in political science departments at prestigious universities, and the books containing their alarmist claims have been published by prominent academic presses. These scholars argue that, after WWII, Schmitt exerted a significant, subterranean influence on political and legal thinking in the US. He thereby helped determine the contours of political thinking in the US, and continues to do so to this very day.3 In what surely belongs among the great intellectual paradoxes of our times, writes one, many American
1. A version of this paper was delivered at the Seminar on the History of Legal and Political Thought at Columbia University, New York (November 7, 2001). 2. William E. Scheuerman, Carl Schmitt: The End of Law (New York: Rowan & Littlefield, 1999), pp. 261-262. 3. Ibid., pp. 11, 12 and 184.

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political scientists, in the immediate aftermath of the victory over National Socialism in 1945, embraced a tradition of political thought that was complicit in the antidemocratic sins of twentieth-century European political theory and practice.4 Indeed, these scholars actually argue that Schmitt is the bridge between past and present, between interwar German fascism and post-World War II North American conservatism.5 Demonstrating that Schmitt was the intellectual godfather of postWWII American conservatism was no easy task. After all, until the 1980s few in North America had even heard of Schmitt and most of them worked under the then prevalent, though erroneous notion, that he was a Nazi thinker. For this reason, in the postwar decades, few scholars in Europe or America wanted, in any way, to be associated with the man or his ideas. Schmitt was persona non grata in all intellectual circles. How then did this tainted outcast, during these very years, exercise such profound influence over the very country that had just interrogated him at Nuremberg as a potential war criminal? Schmitt did so without saying or doing anything, for his ideas had supposedly already infected the thinking of certain German migrs, who were about to play influential roles in American intellectual life in the postwar decades. These thinkers were Friedrich Hayek, Hans Morgenthau, Joseph Schumpeter, and Leo Strauss. None of them ever saw themselves as promoters of Schmittian ideas. In fact, several of them had been hostile critics of Schmitt. Not one of them ever dared to attribute any of their own ideas to Schmitt. Yet, this current school of Schmitt historiography insists that, through their works, there are clear lines of succession back to Schmitt in all the major components of contemporary American conservatism.6 Schmittian influence can be seen in democratic elite theory, the free-market critique of the welfare state, cultural conservatism, and the realist theory of international relations.7 It has even been claimed that this stream of influence extends indirectly, though no less significantly, to Allan Bloom, William Kristol, Newt Gingrich, and Pat Buchanan.8 Furthermore, the consequences of such influence are depicted, to say the least, as far reaching. Thus, William E. Scheuerman argues that one must understand this Schmittian influence in order to avoid repeating the
4. Ibid., p. 207. 5. John P. McCormick, Carl Schmitts Critique of Liberalism: Against Politics as Technology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 302. 6. Ibid., pp. 303-304. 7. Scheuerman, Carl Schmitt, op. cit., pp. 11-12, 180-255. 8. McCormick, Carl Schmitts Critique of Liberalism, op. cit., pp. 302-303.

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political catastrophes and barbarism of the past century: The twentieth century has been one of exceptional political brutality. It would be nave and presumptuous to believe that we could ever adequately compensate its millions of victims. Maybe, however, we can use the example of the crown jurist of National Socialism, Carl Schmitt, to help make sure that the next century avoids the worst horrors of the last.9 John P. McCormick worries about current indications of similar Schmittian paths in America, Europe and the Third World. He actually identifies these alarming indicators rather precisely as: neo-Nazism, militia movements, Christian identity ideologies, ethnic cleansing, racially motivated mass rape, violent attacks on emigrant workers and foreigners, [and] bombing of abortion clinics and state administrative buildings . . . .10 Now, one can show certain Schmittian influences on particular thinkers in North America. However, these extraordinary claims of Schmitt as the intellectual godfather of American conservatism, or of any link between German fascism and contemporary American conservatives, is highly dubious, and labeling such connections as highly dubious is, indeed, a very kind of way of putting it. Not only are such connections very questionable, but they are also based on erroneous depictions of Schmitt and his ideas. In actuality, Schmitt never wrote or advocated most of the things these new interpretations attribute to him. There is much to condemn in Schmitt. One can even totally reject him and his ideas. But scholarly standards dictate that he be condemned and rejected for his actual ideas and activities. These critics accuse Schmitt of being an irrational thinker with a lust for power, who advocated dictatorship, a jurisprudence of lawlessness, and ethnic cleansing.11 Yet, nowhere in the historical evidence will one find Schmitt promoting such things. All this sensationalist language, often in highly indignant moralistic tones, is aimed at the re-Nazification of Schmitt. This is an attempt to counteract the substantial new evidence, and the scholarship based on it, that has emerged over the last thirty years. Scholars in Europe, Japan, and America have long refuted the 1950s interpretations of Schmitt as someone who undermined the Weimar Republic and saw his ideas come to fruition in the Third Reich. Nonetheless, those who refuse to accept such reinterpretations based on this evidence, are relentless in insisting that Schmitt was committed by
9. Scheuerman, Carl Schmitt, op. cit., p. 255. 10. McCormick, Carl Schmitts Critique of Liberalism, op. cit., p. 305. 11. David Dyzenhaus, ed., Law as Politics: Carl Schmitts Critique of Liberalism (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998), op. cit., pp. 11-13; Scheuerman, Carl Schmitt, op. cit., pp. 13, 35, 251.

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his own work to welcoming Hitlers seizure of power.12 In addition, they accuse those who do not agree with them of being apologists, who have de-nazified and sanitized Schmitt in order to promote his ideas.13 Those determined to re-nazify Schmitt repeatedly describe him as a fascist. They occasionally even attempt to demonstrate why a particularly brilliant Weimar conservative in fact became a Weimar fascist.14 However, such assertions aside, fascism was a revolutionary movement, seeking the revolutionary transformation of society, whereas Schmitt, even during his worst compromises in the Third Reich, remained a statist. As a good Hobbesian, Schmitts goal was always order and stability, as well as the preservation of traditional institutions of state and society. Those who characterize Schmitt as a fascist no doubt firmly believe him to be one. But, for them, Schmitt must be depicted as a fascist for another reason. Without fascist roots, American conservatism, and the ominous future it supposedly portends, becomes far less menacing. Is there cause for alarm in the fact that Schmitts work has been revived simultaneously with a reemergence of the kind of right-wing political activity that Schmitt himself endorsed?15 One is continually alerted not to be deceived about this hidden threat,16 for Schmitts authoritarian strategy should attune the contemporary reader to the fact that regressive movements that would
12. Dyzenhaus, Why Carl Schmitt? in Dyzenhaus, Law as Politics, op. cit., p. 3. 13. Dieter Haselbach, Die Wandlung zum Liberalen: Zur gegenwrtigen Schmitt-Diskussion in den USA, in Klaus Hansen and Hans Lietzmann, eds., Carl Schmitt und die Liberalismuskritik (Opladen: Leske & Budrich, 1988), pp. 119-140; David Dyzenhaus, Legality and Legitimacy: Carl Schmitt, Hans Kelsen, and Hermann Heller in Weimar (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 98-101; Scheuerman, Carl Schmitt, op. cit., p. 257. 14. John P. McCormick, The Dilemmas of Dictatorship: Carl Schmitt and Constitutional Emergency Powers, in Dyzenhaus, Law as Politics, op. cit., p. 236; McCormick, Carl Schmitts Critique of Liberalism, op. cit., p. 12; Scheuerman, Carl Schmitt, op. cit., p. 260. 15. McCormick, Carl Schmitts Critique of Liberalism, op. cit., p. 3. 16. To ensure as to where this line of thought should proceed, it is claimed that: On the manner by which, for instance, contemporary American policy advocates of the right deploy the supposedly traditional conservatism of Schmitt-student Leo Strauss, see Brent Staples, Undemocratic Vistas: The Sinister Vogue of Leo Strauss, in the New York Times of November 28, 1994. See John P. McCormick, Feudalism, Fascism, and Fordism: Weimar Theories of Representation and Their Legacy in the Bonn Republic, in Peter C. Caldwell and William E. Scheuerman, eds., From Liberal Democracy to Fascism (Boston: Prometheus Books, 2000), p. 73. However, the Schmitt as fascist theme notwithstanding, this volume contains two illuminating contributions on the history of German political and constitutional thought. See Manfred H. Wiegandt, Antiliberal Foundations, Democratic Convictions: The Methodological and Political Position of Gerhard Leibholz in the Weimar Republic, pp. 106-135, and Peter C. Caldwell, Is a Social Rechtsstaat Possible? The Weimar Roots of a Bonn Controversy, pp. 136-153.

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only bring about new and worse forms of oppression will cloak themselves in the less offensive garb of traditional conservatism. Efforts at linking Schmitt with American conservatism also represent a new trend in the historiography of this field. Unlike other studies of Schmitt, these works concentrate not on the history of political and legal theory in Germany, but rather focus on the US. This North American Excursion17 is relatively new, and illustrates two other aspects of recent Schmitt studies. On the one hand, it shows how quickly such new interpretations of Schmitt come and go; on the other, it shows how malleable Schmitt has become as a subject. It was not long ago that the New York Review of Books, among others, praised those interpretations that found the key to Schmitts thought and political affiliations in his alleged political-theology.18 But, within just a few short years, this so-called theological twist in Schmitt historiography has already given way to the North American Excursion. For the origins of the North American Excursion, one has to look back to German leftist scholarship on Schmitt during the 1970s and 1980s. These leftist scholars tried to establish a continuity from Schmitts Weimar theories, through the Third Reich, and into the Federal Republic. In this leftist framework, Schmitt appears as a thinker determined to secure the hegemony of bourgeois social and economic interests that were threatened by the emergence of Weimar democracy. In order to defend this bourgeois political domination, Schmitt supposedly relied on the emergency powers of the president. When that failed with the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Schmitt then pursued the same goal of bourgeois hegemony by opportunistically working with the Nazis. After WWII, the very idea of a strong presidency was out of the question, so Schmitt again devised a new instrument for securing bourgeois hegemony against the democratic forces of a parliamentary system, and that new instrument was the Federal Constitutional Court. Whereas most political observers have considered the Federal Constitutional Court to be a major stabilizing force against threats to the survival of the postwar democratic system in Germany, the Left sees this
17. See my review of Dyzenhaus, Law as Politics and Scheuerman, Carl Schmitt in Central European History, Vol. 34, No. 1 (2001), pp. 116-120. 18. Mark Lilla, The Enemy of Liberalism, in New York Review of Books, XLIV, No. 8 (May 15, 1997), pp. 38-44. See also Andreas Koenen, Der Fall Carl Schmitt: Sein Aufstieg zum Kronjuristen des Dritten Reiches (Darmstadt: Wissensch. BG Dst., 1995) and Heinrich Meier, Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss: The Hidden Dialogue: Including Strausss Notes on Schmitts Concept of the Political and Three Letters from Strauss to Schmitt, tr. by J. Harvey Lomax (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995).

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institution quite differently. From this leftist perspective, Schmitt designed the court specifically to limit the democratic exercise of power through parliament and thereby accomplish his longtime goal of preserving bourgeois domination against the democratic rights of the people.19 Some of these German leftists linked the growing interest in Schmitt in the US with the same goal of bourgeois domination. They explicitly identified George Schwab and myself as American neo-conservatives engaged in transplanting Schmitt to the US to protect domination against pluralism. Supposedly, we had denazified Schmitt in order to use his ideas to promote the Reagan Revolution, and to protect the capitalist order against popular democratic forces.20 But drawing such connections, without sufficient grounds or evidence, typifies the overall approach to scholarship of this German leftist school of thought. There is specific evidence that this German leftist school of thought definitely influenced the scholars responsible for the current North American Excursion. This is especially true regarding one of the bestknown German leftist interpreters of Schmitt Ingeborg Maus.21 As one of these scholars phrased it, my remarks here have been inspired by Maus, in more ways than I can begin to acknowledge.22 Whereas most scholars see a break in Schmitts thinking and political activity in 1933 when he began to compromise with the Nazis, Maus maintains the leftist interpretation of continuity. In fact, she argues there was also no break in 1945. To Maus, Schmitts legal theory established indeterminate concepts of law and constitutions, i.e., the interpretation and implementation of laws and constitutional articles always remained rather fluid and flexible, depending on the political and social realities of the times. Thus,
19. Hans Lietzmann, Vater der Verfassungsvter? Carl Schmitt und die Verfassungsgrndung in der Bundesrepublik, in Hansen and Lietzmann, Carl Schmitt und die Liberalismuskritik, op. cit., pp. 107-118. 20. Haselbach, Die Wandlung zum Liberalen, op. cit., pp. 126-129. Since I am a Social Democrat who campaigned for McGovern and Carter, such charges appeared rather funny to my family, colleagues, and students. Neither have I ever been a Schmittian. And to this day, I have not the slightest idea where they ever got the notion that I was affiliated with neo-conservatives. Almost fifteen years ago, I exposed these inaccurate and ludicrous associations with causes and ideas I definitely opposed then and now. See Joseph W. Bendersky, Carl Schmitt as Occasio, in Telos 78 (Winter 1988-89), pp. 202-208. 21. Maus introduced her fundamental arguments on Schmitt and bourgeois domination decades ago in Brgerliche Rechtstheorie und Faschismus: Zur sozialen Funktion und aktuellen Wirkung der Theorie Carl Schmitts (Munich: Wilhelm, 1976). 22. William E. Scheuerman, Revolutions and Constitutions: Hannah Arendts Challenge to Carl Schmitt, in Dyzenhaus, Law as Politics, op. cit., pp. 274-275. See also McCormick, Carl Schmitts Critique of Liberalism, op. cit., pp. 143-144, 229, 235, 253.

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there is a kind of legal indeterminacy. Such indeterminate law is in stark contrast to positivist law, which demands strict adherence to the specific wording and intent of the lawgiver. To Maus, Schmitts indeterminate legal theory permits those in power absolute discretion and discrimination in implementing law according to the existing political situation. It follows that those holding political power would use such legal discretion to defend their own class interests. This was the real intent and consequence of Schmitts legal theory. Here, too, Schmitt emerges as the defender of bourgeois interests and capitalist structures. After using certain liberal concepts to defend bourgeois interests in early Weimar, Schmitts theories supposedly justified eliminating parliament when those same interests felt threatened by popular forces in the legislature. Allegedly, Schmitts legal thought protected these economically privileged classes after 1933 by just as easily adapting to National Socialism. With these same class-based objectives in mind, Schmitt allegedly adapted his legal theory to suit the new democratic system in West Germany after WWII. He was still securing bourgeois privileges against the rest of society. To this very day, Maus still argues that Schmitts legal concepts are the secret dominant legal theory of the Federal Republic, particularly of the Constitutional Court.23 The North American Excursion is a parallel to the German leftist interpretation of Schmitt. Accordingly, Schmitt is not only the secret force behind official German legal theory today, but his ghost also continues to haunt . . . political thinking in the United States as well.24 The advocates of this kind of interpretation attempt to demonstrate this link between Schmitt and American conservatives by using the method of the hidden dialogue, i.e., by carefully deconstructing the writings of American conservative thinkers, one can discern that they were engaged in seriously confronting Schmittian ideas. It is supposedly the case of a dialogue that has already taken place between Schmitt and American political thought.25 One can identify this hidden dialogue revealing such influence even where Schmitt is not mentioned, or where his work is criticized or dismissed. This hidden dialogue supposedly took place even over subjects such as technology and the welfare state, where Schmitt had very little, if
23. Ingeborg Maus, The 1933 Break In Carl Schmitts Theory, in Dyzenhaus, Law as Politics, op. cit., pp. 196-216. 24. Scheuerman, Carl Schmitt, op. cit., p. 180. 25. Ibid., pp. 11, 183.

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anything, to say at all.26 Nonetheless, bringing Schmitt into the socio-economic realm of the welfare state is especially important for this school of thought, for these writers are absolutely convinced that Schmitts bourgeois legal thought is intended to serve as a bulwark against the kind of social and economic justice these writers feel compelled to dispense throughout the world.27 While such social and economic justice is a laudable goal, the case is yet to be made that Schmitt took this antagonistic stance toward the lower classes. The fact of the matter is that no one has ever even superficially examined Schmitts thoughts on social issues or economic policy. And when this is done, one might be surprised at what is uncovered. After all, the conservative Catholic milieu from which Schmitt emerged, though anti-socialist, had strong sympathies toward progressive social and economic policies. However, the problems with the methodology of the hidden dialogue become most evident when it is used to connect Schmitt with Schumpeter, Hayek, and Morgenthau. Supposedly, these three authors engaged in a relatively intense dialogue with Schmitt and his ideas.28 Yet, the books claiming to document this dialogue do nothing of the kind. Moreover, the use of conjecture and questionable inferences, combined with the misuse or lack of evidence, is startling. At first glance, it may appear that there is something to the claims of a link between Schmitt and Schumpeter. Between 1925 and 1928, they were colleagues at the University of Bonn, were familiar with some of each others works, and occasionally socialized. At certain points, they even noted admiration for each others scholarship.29 A great deal, including the specifics of this dialogue that never materialized is predicated on this three year professional relation. A dialogue, however, implies some sort of communication or exchange of ideas. But where is the interaction between these thinkers? Where are the works, or sections of works, in which they discuss or challenge each other? Note how different this relation is from that between Schmitt and others with whom he engaged in direct debate. Schmitt and Hans Kelsen openly challenged each other in their works. The young Leo Strauss wrote an article criticizing Schmitts friend-enemy thesis and they then exchanged ideas on the subject. But nothing similar exists between
26. Ibid., pp. 91-92. See also McCormack, Carl Schmitts Critique of Liberalism, op. cit. 27. Scheuerman, Carl Schmitt, op. cit., pp. 4-5, 89-90, 108-112, 212-224. See also McCormick, Carl Schmitts Critique of Liberalism, op. cit., pp. 312-314. 28. Scheuerman, Carl Schmitt, op. cit., pp. 11-12. 29. Ibid., pp. 197-199.

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Schumpeter and Schmitt. As for the details (where, as is well-known, the devil resides), the author soon reduces definite influence and crucial dialogue to mere thematic parallels in their thinking. The promised definite connection is reduced to a mere suspicion that this must have existed, because one can perhaps identify certain affinities in their ideas.30 It is claimed that, at the beginning, Schumpeters classic work Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy can be read as an attempt to respond to Schmitts own diagnosis of the crisis of parliamentarism.31 Yet, neither man ever acknowledged any connection on this subject. Then, it is claimed (or, perhaps, it is merely reluctantly conceded) that perhaps Schumpeter never borrowed his ideas directly from Schmitt. But their discussions during their Bonn years, at the very least helped cement Schumpeters own antidemocratic tendencies.32 There is no documentation to substantiate this grand supposition. The supposed direct lineage from Schmitt to Schumpeter is then broadened far beyond Schmitt, to the more general authoritarian milieu of the 1920s in which they both supposedly functioned. Even in those cases where one can show some exchange of ideas, it is argued that what one thinker actually stated cannot be taken at face value. Thus, Schmitt did cite Schumpeters Sociology of Imperialism. But he did so critically. Nonetheless, this apparent criticism should be read differently. If properly deconstructed, what appears to be criticism, as actually stated by Schmitt, suddenly becomes Schmitt using his own political theory to substantiate Schumpeters theory of imperialism.33 Despite the failure to deliver a promised lineage of influence, and after all the qualifications and backtracking, the supposed intellectual nexus between the fascist Schmitt and Schumpeter is maintained to the very end: Schumpeters theory is a rival to Schmitts. This is a friendly rivalry, however, resting on mutual respect and an extensive set of shared intellectual assumptions. Schumpeters theory is hardly fascistic. Yet Schumpeter may be only a few steps away from Schmitts path. Indeed, it is concluded that American political science will now have to examine the alarming possibility that authoritarian right-wing political theory exercised a subterranean influence, via Schumpeter, on this discipline.34 Indeed, it is claimed that Schmitts impact on contemporary free-market
30. 31. 32. 33. 34. Ibid., pp. 183, 191, 199-200. Ibid., p. 183. Ibid., p. 200. Ibid., pp. 198-199. Ibid., p. 206.

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conservatism is even more substantial than his influence on democratic theory in postwar political science.35 This is accomplished through Hayek, who, allegedly, repeatedly acknowledged his intellectual debts to Schmitt.36 In 1960, Hayek did cite a few of Schmitts legal works in Constitution of Liberty and in his last work, Law, Legislation, and Liberty, Hayek did praise Schmitt as the extraordinary German student of politics. Moreover, it is correct to identify the actual parallels between certain Schmittian ideas and those in Hayeks 1944 The Road to Serfdom, despite Hayeks attempts to prevent any such association by harshly criticizing Schmitt and affiliating him with Nazism.37 But the two men never met or corresponded. Schmitt was unfamiliar with Hayeks work. Although Hayek did cite Schmitts critique of the pluralistic party state,38 Hayek remained unfamiliar with most of Schmitts writings in political theory. Nonetheless, it is argued that Hayek builds on key elements of Schmitts theoretical assault on the Weimar left.39 In essence, both figures supposedly made common cause against the welfare state, and here Schmitts alleged assault on the welfare state receives a great deal of emphasis. But since Schmitt, in actuality, did not address the welfare state in this manner, it is necessary to transform what he did write into the language of the welfare state. Thus, Schmitts famous designation of Weimar as a party-state was reputedly a criticism of the democratic welfare state.40 But this transformation of the party-state into the welfare state does not hold up. On the contrary, Schmitts partystate referred not only to leftist political parties and labor unions, but rather to a variety of pluralistic forces in Weimar that included Catholics, even bourgeois parties, and the powerful capitalist economic forces he was allegedly defending. The fact is that the repeated references to the welfare state do not actually emanate from Schmitt. This does not prevent reading into Schmitt anti-social-democratic positions that he had not actually taken in Weimar. Although Schmitt did not single out the Social Democrats, or even refer to them in this manner, it is made to appear that they were his primary, perhaps sole, target (or enemy). He is accused of railing against social-democratic forms of state
35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. Ibid., p. 209. Ibid. Ibid., pp. 218, 220. Ibid., pp. 219-220. Ibid., p. 209. Ibid., pp. 212-224.

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activity.41 His concept of the qualitative total state is depicted as a means of protecting the substantial autonomy of owners of private capital against a weak, social-democratic inspired interventionist state.42 Yet, this language is not taken from Schmitt. Neither is the quote used to make it appear that Schmitt was addressing these socio-economic issues in this manner by supposedly advocating that the state divest itself of welfare obligations, [and] commitments to protecting [the] social rights of subordinate social constituencies.43 That quote is derived from a 1994 article about Schmitt attributing this to him.44 Nevertheless, the erroneous descriptions of Schmitts defense of the capitalist economy against social democracy are then carried to a further inferential extreme. It is claimed that a lecture Schmitt delivered to an industrial group in late 1932 in support of Schleichers plans for government social and economic programs to counteract the depression was really an early attempt to extend the infamous Fhrerprinzip into the economy; and second, it reproduces the view, widespread among propertied groups in Germany in 1933, that the Nazis might succeed in guaranteeing German business far more autonomy than it had succeeded in maintaining in the Weimar period.45 As with Schumpeter, so too with Hayek, the connection with Schmitt is usually reduced to assumed affinities and parallels in thought and objectives, or, hidden in Hayeks work, is his implicit dependence on Schmitt. In the end, both theorists supposedly advocate the use of
41. Ibid., p. 215. 42. Ibid. 43. Ibid. 44. See Peter Gowan, The Return of Carl Schmitt, in Debate: Review of Contemporary German Affairs, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1994), p. 120. 45. Scheuerman, Carl Schmitt, op. cit., pp. 326-327. For how blatant is this reading into Schmitt of positions he never took, compare the passages in Scheuerman with what Schmitt actually said in Gesunde Wirtschaft im starken Staat, in Mitteilungen des Vereins zur Wahrnehmung der gemeinsamen wirtschaftlichen Interessen in Rheinland und Westfalen (Langnamverein), No. 1, pp. 13-32. This was republished a few months later as Starker Staat und gesunde Wirtschaft, in Volk und Recht: Politische Monatshefte (February 1933), pp. 81-94. Almost Schmitts entire lecture dealt with the political deadlock at the end of 1932, and his theme was essentially that constitutional reform should not be attempted in the midst of this crisis. In those few instances where he mentioned economic revival, he did so in the tone of Schleichers plans. Ironically, in stark contrast to Scheuermans contention of Schmitt defending bourgeois capital and ownership, the Schleicher reforms Schmitt was supporting were staunchly opposed by business, capitalists and the political Right as leftist and socialistic, and they quickly withdrew their backing of the general turned chancellor. On Schleichers turn to the Left, see Hajo Holborn, A History of Modern Germany, 1840-1945 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982), pp. 704-705.

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authoritarian political means to conduct a full-fledged assault on the democratic welfare state. However, even in this crucial conclusion there are the by now usual qualifications. Presumably, Schmitt only indirectly acknowledged this goal, and Hayek never explicitly endorsed it, even though this is where both their ideas supposedly have definitely led.46 This line of thought is pursued further in yet another hidden dialogue that supposedly occurred between Schmitt and Hans Morgenthau. Four essential points are made regarding this relation. First, Morgenthau harshly condemned Schmitt and disassociated himself from him. Second, Morgenthau actually influenced Schmitts thinking on politics in a significant way. Third, Morgenthau did absorb Schmitts ideas. And fourth, in the final analysis, Morgenthau the man and his theories are both inherently better than the fascist Schmitt and his immoral, murderous ideas.47 Since both Morgenthau and Schmitt are Hobbesian proponents of the realist school of international relations, it is legitimate to compare and contrast the origins and nature of their ideas. There may have been some intellectual cross-fertilization on certain points. But to propose such dramatic influence of Schmitt on Morgenthau, leading to the dire consequences attributed to American conservatism, is highly questionable. Among the numerous writings of Schmitt relating to political theory and international relations, the so-called Morgenthau-Schmitt dialogue is actually limited to one work Schmitts The Concept of the Political. Morgenthau claimed that his 1929 dissertation was written, in part, as a response to Schmitts 1927 book, and that Schmitt revised the 1932 edition of The Concept of the Political to accommodate this. Although Schmitt never acknowledged this influence, these scholars argue that fundamental shifts in Schmitts political thinking occurred because of Morgenthaus influence. The contention is that thereafter Schmitt introduced a model of intensity to explain friend-enemy relations that was lacking in his original version.48 However, a careful analysis of the changes from the 1927 to the 1932 edition show no fundamental shift.49 In fact, Schmitt did use the concept of intensity in the original version. What appears in the 1932 edition is an elaboration of that original idea. It
46. Ibid., pp. 223-224. 47. Ibid., pp. 225-251. 48. Ibid., pp. 225-226, 231-237. 49. Compare Carl Schmitt, Der Begriff des Politischen, in Archiv fr Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, Vol. 58, No. 1 (August 1927), especially pp. 4-5, 9-11, with The Concept of the Political, tr. by George Schwab (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1976), pp. 26-27, 36-43.

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certainly represents nothing even approximating a refocusing, fundamental shift in thought, or the introduction of a new model of intensity. The nature and effects of the hidden dialogue take on even more dubious dimensions on this issue. Although Schmitt never responded publicly to Morgenthaus ideas, it is claimed that it is possible to discern the outlines of his likely response. The author then goes on to explain in detail how Schmitt probably would have answered Morgenthau.50 Again, one really does wonder about the existence of this so-called dialogue, especially since it is purported to be: . . . ultimately more decisive for the constitution of Schmitts concept of the political than Schmitts dialogue with Strauss.51 The only other concrete intellectual interaction between the two men was completely one-sided. In 1933, Morgenthau published a harsh critique of Schmitts Concept of the Political, to which Schmitt never responded. This is explained as Morgenthau disassociating himself from Schmitt, when the latter started to collaborate with the Nazis. Nonetheless, by the 1940s, Morgenthau has allegedly again moved back closer to Schmitts ideas on international relations.52 Since Morgenthau did not cite Schmitt, the proof for this new Schmittian-oriented Morgenthau is to be found, once again, in the parallels in their thinking. This is especially true regarding realism in international politics and the place of morality. The argument gets complicated further by the desire to ensure that Morgenthau, the victim of Nazism, is not really equated with the fascist Schmitt after all. In the final analysis, despite all the influences each exerted on the other, Schmitt represented the realism of war, whereas Morgenthau represented the realism of peace. Although neither of the contentions has been, or can be, substantiated, these essential differences can be traced to their earlier dialogue on the concept of the political.53 The Morgenthau-Schmitt relation also raises questions about another problem with the North American Excursion. In trying so hard to establish the direct, crucial link between Schmitt and American conservatism, they neglect the countless other significant influences on Schumpeter, Hayek, and Morgenthau, as well as the equally abundant other forces and influences beyond these thinkers that helped shape American conservatism. This deficiency is quite evident regarding Morgenthaus realism in
50. 51. 52. 53. Scheuerman, Carl Schmitt, op. cit., p. 236. Ibid., p. 227. Ibid., pp. 237-243. Ibid., pp. 245-251.

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international relations. Although Morgenthau name and theories became a symbol for this school of thought, he did not invent it anymore than its origins can be traced back solely to Schmitt. There is a very long tradition of this kind of realism in German political thought (especially regarding morality and international politics) that affected both Morgenthau and Schmitt. Off-hand, one could cite the writings of Frederick the Great, which relegated morality out of necessity to a subordinate role to raison dtat. By the late 19th century, Heinrich von Treitschke likewise elevated power over morality in the states pursuit of survival and selfrealization. In fact, the same is true in the field of German positivist legal theory that dominated in Germany in the late 19th century. Positivist law advocates recognized no higher force or authority than the sovereign state, whose preservation and interests were paramount. Natural law or other universal norms of morality were not to interfere with raison dtat. Up to WWI, German historians provided numerous studies on Great Power politics, all based on the advancement of the interest of sovereign state in its competition with others (Hans Delbrck, Erich Marcks, Otto Hintze). Certainly, one would have to take into account the entire field of geopolitical theory, from its inception in the late 19th century through the 1930s, including the enormous influence of Karl Haushofer. If one were to comprehensively investigate this subject, one would have to take into account Sigmund Freuds works on war, the state, and group behavior on the international scene. Although both Schmitt and Freud were Hobbesians, they did not influence each other at all. Yet, the parallels between their thinking on friend-enemy antagonisms and the role of state power and national interest in international relations are, indeed, striking.54 Can one legitimately speak of a hidden dialogue that impacted American conservatism? Not really. In noting this vast array of German influences, numerous American and British intellectual currents that must be taken into account have not been mentioned. One curious aspects of the North America Excursion is the complete neglect of a key figure in American political science who was directly influenced by Schmitt: Carl J. Friedrich. Schmitt and Friedrich did have a long personal relation, and Friedrich specifically integrated Schmittian concepts into his own work from the 1930s through the post-WWII era. Whether on
54. For the Schmitt-Freud parallels, see Joseph W. Bendersky, Schmitt and Freud: Anthropology, Enemies, and the State, in Dietrich Murswiek, Ulrich Storost, Heinrich A. Wolff, eds., Staat Souvernitt Verfassung: Festschrift fr Helmut Quaritsch zum 70. Geburtstag (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2000), pp. 622-635.

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theories of totalitarianism, executive emergency powers, international relations, or the constitution of the Federal Republic, Schmitts influence on Friedrich is undeniable. The evidence for this relation is available and there is no need to resort to hidden dialogues to establish it. That Schmittian ideas might also, in various ways, have influenced certain aspects of the thinking of Schumpeter, Hayek, and Morgenthau is certainly correct. But reading their key theories as variants of Schmitts is an untenable proposition. So, too, is attempting to make these figures the carriers of Schmitts dangerous ghost hovering over American conservative thinking. Such a direct line does not exist. It can only be forced into existence by manipulating ideas and parallels, as well as by neglecting all other possible influences and sources. In recent decades, scholars have been able to establish through concrete evidence that various intellectuals across the political spectrum had been influenced by Schmitt. This includes leftist migrs such as Otto Kirchheimer and Franz Neumann. But no attempt has been made to depict them as bearers of the Schmittian ghost exercising insidious influences on America, with similar dangerous implications to those attributed to American conservatism. The reliance on certain Schmittian works or concepts indicates instead that in the Weimar era Schmitt was considered an important conservative thinker, whose thoughts illuminated key areas of political and legal thought. He was recognized as such a mainstream thinker by intellectuals across the political spectrum, who used his works accordingly. Neither his ideas nor his personal political proclivities were perceived as fascist. The intellectual relations that might be established between Schmitt and thinkers such as Schumpeter, Hayek, and Morgenthau should be viewed in a similar light.