The Total State in Carl Schmitt: Overflow of the Political and Totalitarian Decision. A Theoretical-Doctrinal Reconstruction

Abstract

“Total State” designates for Schmitt two phenomena. First, total State “out of weakness”: the disolution of the political by social conflict and class struggles during the German constitutional crisis. Second, total State “with regard to quality and energy”, whose model is the Nazi State in 1933. According to Schmitt, the later would be the answer to the crisis: a State capable of deciding, as souvereign entity, over the conflicts which tear the political unity, and of reinstalling unity and combat of the enemy. Both would be accomplished by appropiating the technical means and replacing the classic State with a triple structure (State, Movement, Volk).