Confronting the Enemy: The Western Marxist Reception of Carl Schmitt

The German jurist and political theorist Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) has exercised great influence on late modern political thought. However, he remains controversial not least because his participation in the power consolidation of the Nazi regime. Despite this, many have been inspired by his work, including many of his ostensible enemies. This project aims to track Schmitt’s reception among so-called Western Marxists. Members of this group have offered some of the most groundbreaking interpretations of Schmitt in the last 50 years and have contributed in making his thought relevant for a wider academic audience and new generations of scholars. The question is under which conditions this reception has developed, who the leading figures have been, and what problem horizons that have constituted the contexts for these approaches to Schmitt.