Staten som politisk enhet : En undersökning av Carl Schmitts statsbegrepp i Det politiska som begrepp

Sammanfattning: In the 1932 essay The Concept of the Political, German legal philosopher Carl Schmitt (1888– 1985) raises the question: what is the modern state? In his answer Schmitt indivisibly links state and politics by stating that the concept of the state presupposes the concept of the political. The modern state is subsequently characterised as the political unity of a people. In the following thesis, I investigate the meaning of this designation by examining Schmitt’s state theory. Firstly, I set out to analyse his understanding of the political as a realm of conflict (chapter 2). On that basis, I scrutinise his views on the nature of the state as a political form of organisation (chapter 3). The thesis argues that given Schmitt’s understanding of the political as basically antagonistic, the raison d’être of the state is to relativise domestic tensions and conflicts in such a way as to facilitate the maintenance of order, peace and stability in a territorially enclosed configuration. Furthermore, the thesis contends that the ultimate purpose of the state, according to Schmitt, is to ensure a strong sense of political unity within the population and to promote the common goods a flourishing political community requires. In light of this, the thesis concludes that Schmitt’s state theory is essentially teleological in the sense that the political unity constituting the state is not merely an empirical phenomenon but rather a standard every real state should endeavour to realise.