No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Schmitt and Tocqueville on the Future of the Political in Democratic Times
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 October 2012
Abstract
Tocqueville can easily be seen as the symbol of the French liberal thought whereas Schmitt is considered as the brightest opponent of the liberal doctrine. Trying to reconcile their theories might thus seem counterintuitive. However, delving into Schmitt's work reveals that the German thinker admired his French counterpart. As the question of their potential intellectual proximity becomes relevant, this article offers a first glance into what appears as a somehow connected interpretation of the democratic phenomenon in relation to their fear of possible depoliticizations. While they elaborate on distinct and almost contradictory questions which develop along diverging architectonics, the historian and the jurist show a deep problématique convergence. Furthermore, their reservations concerning the enlargement of national borders, individualism, and popular sovereignty reinforce this intuition with one notable exception: Schmitt keeps on ousting the variable “liberty” from Tocqueville's democratic equation.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © University of Notre Dame 2012
References
1 See Le Strat, Claire and Pelletier, Willy, La Canonisation libérale de Tocqueville (Paris: Syllepse, 2006)Google Scholar. Unless stated otherwise, all the quotations in French and German are translated by the authors of this paper.
2 Ibid., 103; and Audard, Catherine, Qu'est-ce que le libéralisme? Éthique, politique, société (Paris: Gallimard, 2009)Google Scholar.
3 Lilla, Mark, “The Legitimacy of the Liberal Age,” in New French Thought: Political Philosophy, ed. Lilla, Mark (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), 7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
4 Müller, Jan-Werner, Carl Schmitt: Un esprit dangereux (Paris: Armand Colin, 2007), 288–90Google Scholar.
5 See, for instance, Agamben, Giorgio, State of Exception (London: University of Chicago Press, 2005)Google Scholar; and Bensaïd, Daniel, Éloge de la politique profane (Paris: Albin Michel, 2008)Google Scholar.
6 Lindenberg, Daniel, Le Rappel à l'ordre: Enquête sur les nouveaux réactionnaires (Paris: Seuil, 2002), 58–60Google Scholar.
7 Audier, Serge, La pensée anti-68: Essai sur une restauration intellectuelle (Paris: La Découverte, 2009), 183CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
8 Raynaud, Philippe, “Quelle restauration?,” Commentaire, no. 124 (Winter 2008): 1217CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
9 “My admiration for him is great” (Aron to Julien Freund, 17 April 1967, quoted in Tommissen, Piet, “Raymond Aron face à Carl Schmitt,” in Schmittiana: Beiträge zu Leben und Werk Carl Schmitts, ed. Tommissen, Piet, vol. 7 [Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2001], 119)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
10 Aron, Raymond, Penser la guerre, Clausewitz, vol. 2, L'Âge planétaire (Paris: Gallimard, 1976), 210Google Scholar.
11 “Mon intention coïncide avec la sienne” (ibid.).
12 See, for instance, Frohnen, Bruce, Virtue and the Promise of Conservatism: The Legacy of Burke and Tocqueville (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1993)Google Scholar.
13 Scheuerman, William E., Carl Schmitt: The End of Law (Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999), 98Google Scholar.
14 Mayer, Jacob-Peter, Alexis de Tocqueville: A Biographical Study in Political Science (Gloucester: Harper and Brothers, 1960)Google Scholar. Schmitt knew Mayer's interpretations, held them in great esteem, and used to compare them to his friend Díez del Corral's; see Schmitt, Carl, “Solange das Imperium da ist”: Carl Schmitt im Gespräch 1971, ed. Ertweck, Frank and Kisoudis, Dimitrios (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2010), 42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
15 Schmitt, Carl, “Historiographia in Nuce: Alexis de Tocqueville,” in Ex Captivitate Salus: Erfahrungen der Zeit 1945–1947 (Cologne: Greven Verlag, 1950)Google Scholar. This essay was simultaneously published, minus the first of its five chapters, under the title “Existentielle Geschichtsschreibung,” in Universitas 5, no. 10 (1950): 1175–78Google Scholar. In the same journal, Carl Schmitt wrote a review of the book that the Italian Gino Gorla devoted to Tocqueville: Schmitt, Carl, “Commento a Tocqueville: L'idea dei diritti,” Universitas 4, no. 5 (1949): 587–88Google Scholar.
16 Schmitt, Carl, “Donoso Cortés in gesamteuropäischer Interpretation,” in Donoso Cortés in gesamteuropäischer Interpretation: Vier Aufsätze (Cologne: Greven Verlag, 1950)Google Scholar; translated by Grzeskowiak, Mark as “A Pan-European Interpretation of Donoso Cortés,” Telos, no. 125 (Autumn 2002): 100–115Google Scholar. The conference was given in Spanish at the Academia de Jurisprudencia y Legislación of Madrid on 31 May 1944.
17 Schmitt, Carl, “Historiographia in Nuce: Alexis de Tocqueville,” in Ex Captivitate Salus, 2nd ed. (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2002), 27Google Scholar. Unless otherwise indicated, subsequent references to this work will be to the second edition.
18 Rohrmoser, Günter, “Der Hegelsche Staat ist tot,” in Schmittiana, ed. Tommissen, Piet, vol. 6 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1998), 148–49Google Scholar.
19 Schmitt, Carl, “C.S.s Tocqueville Notizen,” in Schmittiana, 7:105–9Google Scholar.
20 See Günter Maschke, remarks on “Der Begriff des Politischen (1927),” by Schmitt, Carl, in Frieden oder Pazifismus? Arbeiten zum Völkerrecht und zur internationalen Politik 1924–1978, ed. Maschke, Günter (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2005), 235–27Google Scholar.
21 See Derrida, Jacques, The Politics of Friendship, trans. Collins, George (London: Verso Books, 2005), 119Google Scholar.
22 Schmitt, Carl, The Concept of the Political, trans. Schwab, George (London: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 38CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
23 Schmitt, Carl, “The Age of Neutralizations and Depoliticizations,” Telos, no. 96 (Summer 1993): 134CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
24 Schmitt, Concept of the Political, 45.
25 de Tocqueville, Alexis, Égalité sociale et liberté politique (Paris: Aubier Montaigne, 1977), 113Google Scholar.
26 de Tocqueville, Alexis, De la Démocratie en Amérique, ed. Jardin, André, vol. 1 (Paris: Gallimard, 1986), part 1, chap. v, 150Google Scholar.
27 Ibid., part 2, chap. x, 543.
28 Ibid., part 1, chap. ii, 69.
29 Ibid., part 2, chap. viii, 371.
30 Although this argument might be surprising regarding Tocqueville, it is consistent with the view of many communitarians who base their critique of the liberal doctrine on this aspect of Tocqueville's theory. See, for instance, Taylor, Charles, “Cross-Purposes: The Liberal-Communitarian Debate,” in Liberalism and the Moral Life, ed. Rosenblum, Nancy L. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989), 159–81Google Scholar.
31 Schmitt, Carl, Constitutional Theory, trans. Seitzer, Jeffrey (London: Duke University Press, 2008), 263 (italics in original; translation slightly modified)Google Scholar.
32 Ibid., 262 (italics in original).
33 de Tocqueville, Alexis, De la Démocratie en Amérique, ed. Jardin, André, vol. 2 (Paris: Gallimard, 1986), part 1, chap. ii, 21Google Scholar.
34 Ibid., part 4, chap. iii, 406.
35 Ibid., part 4, chap. xxvi, 386n2.
36 On the use of the terms “homogeneity” and “uniformity,” see Antoine, Agnès, L'Impensé de la démocratie: Tocqueville, la citoyenneté et la religion (Paris: Fayard, 2003), 58Google Scholar; Clinton, David, Tocqueville, Lieber, and Bagehot: Liberalism confronts the World (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 24CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
37 André Doremus, commentary on “Historiographia in Nuce: Alexis de Tocqueville,” by Schmitt, Carl, in Ex Captivitate Salus, ed. Doremus, A. (Paris: Vrin, 2003), 212Google Scholar.
38 de Tocqueville, Alexis, Souvenirs (Paris: Gallimard, 1999), 123Google Scholar.
39 Ibid., 88.
40 Jacques, Daniel, “Tocqueville et le problème de la clôture politique,” in Tocqueville et l'esprit de la démocratie, ed. Guellec, Laurence (Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 2005), 380Google Scholar.
41 Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 2, part 3, chap. i, 229.
42 Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 1, part 2, chap. xvii, 377.
43 Ibid., part 1, chap. viii, 258.
44 Todorov, Tzvetan, Nous et les autres (Paris: Seuil, 1989), 219Google Scholar. See also Pitts, Jennifer, A Turn to Empire: The Rise of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
45 Schmitt, Constitutional Theory, 262.
46 Ibid.
47 Schmitt, Carl, “Der bürgerliche Rechtsstaat,” in Staat, Großraum, Nomos: Arbeiten aus den Jahren 1916–1969, ed. Maschke, Günter (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1995), 47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
48 Schmitt, Concept of the Political, 71.
49 Manent, Pierre, La Raison des nations: Réflexions sur la démocratie en Europe (Paris: Gallimard, 2006), 25Google Scholar.
50 Manent, Pierre, Cours familier de philosophie politique (Paris: Gallimard, 2001), 90Google Scholar.
51 Schmitt, “Historiographia in Nuce: Alexis de Tocqueville,” 28.
52 Schmitt, “A Pan-European Interpretation of Donoso Cortés,” 104; and Schmitt, “Historiographia in Nuce: Alexis de Tocqueville,” 28.
53 Schmitt, “Historiographia in Nuce: Alexis de Tocqueville,” 29.
54 Schmitt, Concept of the Political, 53.
55 Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 2, part 4, chap. xxvi, 386n2.
56 Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 1, conclusion, 596–97.
57 Ibid., part 1, chap. viii, 247.
58 Ibid., part 1, chap. viii, 249.
59 de Tocqueville, Alexis, Tocqueville au Bas-Canada, ed. Tremblay, Jean-Marie (Montréal: Éditions du Jour, 1973), 108Google Scholar.
60 Ibid., 39.
61 Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 1, part 1, chap. v, 158.
62 Ibid., part 2, chap. v, 295.
63 Ibid., conclusion, 598.
64 Janet, Paul, Histoire de la science politique dans ses rapports avec la morale, 2nd ed. (Paris: F. Alcan, 1887), 2:736Google Scholar.
65 Schmitt, “C.S.s Tocqueville Notizen,” 107.
66 Ibid., 108.
67 Ibid.
68 Ibid., 107.
69 Ibid., 108.
70 See Schmitt, “Historiographia in Nuce: Alexis de Tocqueville,” 30–31. Apparently, Schmitt identified with Tocqueville on that point. He too was defeated: he was arrested and incarcerated in 1945. In his journals, written right after World War II, he never ceased to describe himself as a “defeated” and humiliated man.
71 Ibid.
72 Schmitt, Carl, Die geistesgeschichtliche Lage des heutigen Parlamentarismus, 2nd ed. (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1996), 31Google Scholar.
73 Schmitt, “C.S.s Tocqueville Notizen,“ 108.
74 Schmitt, “A Pan-European Interpretation of Donoso Cortés,” 104.
75 Tocqueville's original text speaks for itself : “After every successive mutation, it was said that the French Revolution, after achieving what was presumptuously called its goal, was over: it was said, it was believed in. Alas, I hoped it was true after the restoration, and even after the restoration government fell; and here is the French Revolution starting over again, and it is always the same” (Souvenirs, 89).
76 Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 1, introduction, 41.
77 Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 2, part 3, chap. xi, 361.
78 Schmitt, Glossarium: Aufzeichnungen der Jahre 1947–1952 (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1991), 240 (7 June 1949; italics added)Google Scholar.
79 Schmitt, Die geistesgeschichtliche Lage, 33.
80 Schmitt, Concept of the Political, 69–70. A few lines later he writes: “The negation of the political … is inherent in every consistent individualism” (ibid., 70).
81 Tocqueville's interpretation of individualism is the subject of debate. We favor a nuanced reading of the concept, developed by Wolin, as both a potential source of diversity and a dangerous isolating element; see SWolin, heldon S., Tocqueville between Two Worlds: The Making of a Political and Theoretical Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 350–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
82 Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 2, part 2, chap. ii, 143.
83 Ibid.
84 Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 1, part 2, chap. vii, 385.
85 Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 2, part 2, chap. viii, 173.
86 Ibid., part 2, chap. viii, 174.
87 Ibid., part 2, chap. i, 137. See also Meuwly, Olivier, Liberté et société: Constant et Tocqueville face aux limites du libéralisme moderne (Genève: Droz, 2002)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, in which the author develops the concept of “symbiotic equilibrium” in his analysis of Tocqueville's need for a balance between liberty and equality.
88 Schmitt, “C.S.s Tocqueville Notizen,” 108 (italics added).
89 Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 1, part 2, chap. x, 543.
90 Ibid. See also part 1, chap. viii, 258: “A certain uniformity of civilization is not less necessary to the durability of a confederation than a uniformity of interests in the states that compose it.”
91 Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 2, part 4, chap. viii, 455.
92 See Schmitt, Constitutional Theory, 235–36.
93 Schmitt, Concept of the Political, 61.
94 Ibid., 68.
95 Ibid. French in the original.
96 Schmitt, “Historiographia in Nuce: Alexis de Tocqueville,” 31.
97 Ibid.
98 Schmitt writes that “men of such eminence as Montalembert, Tocqueville, and Lacordaire represented liberal Catholicism at a time when many of their fellow Catholics still saw in liberalism the Antichrist or at least his forerunner” (Schmitt, Carl, Roman Catholicism and Political Form, trans. Ulmen, Gary L. [London: Greenwood, 1996], 4Google Scholar).
99 Doremus, commentary on “Historiographia in Nuce: Alexis de Tocqueville,” in Ex Captivitate Salus, ed. A. Doremus, 224.
100 See, in particular, Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 1, part 2, chap. vii.
101 Schleifer, James T., The Making of Tocqueville's “Democracy in America,” 2nd ed. (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2000), 80Google Scholar.
102 Tocqueville to Beaumont, 22 April 1838, quoted in Schleifer, The Making of Tocqueville's “Democracy in America,” 80.
103 Schmitt, Die geistesgeschichtliche Lage, 31, quoting Tocqueville.
104 Campagna, Norbert, Le droit, le politique et la guerre: Deux chapitres sur la doctrine de Carl Schmitt (Laval: Presses de l'Université Laval, 2004), 32Google Scholar. On this topic, see also Scheuerman, Carl Schmitt: The End of Law, 86–87, 98–99.
105 Schmitt, Carl, Legality and Legitimacy, trans. Seitzer, Jeffrey (London: Duke University Press, 2007), 90Google Scholar.
106 See, for instance, Schmitt, Carl, “Strong State and Sound Economy: An Address to Business Leaders,” trans. Cristi, Renato and Velaidum, Joseph, in Carl Schmitt and Authoritarian Liberalism, by Cristi, Renato (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1998), 212–32Google Scholar; and Schmitt, Concept of the Political, 22–24.
107 Scheuerman, Carl Schmitt: The End of Law, 98.
108 de Tocqueville, Alexis, Œuvres, ed. Jardin, André, vol. 1 (Paris: Gallimard, 1991), 171Google Scholar.
109 See Wolin, Richard, “Carl Schmitt, Political Existentialism, and the Total State,” Theory and Society 19, no. 4 (1990): 389–416CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
110 Schmitt, Carl, Politische Theologie: Vier Kapitel zur Lehre von der Souveränität (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2004), 43Google Scholar.
111 See Blumenberg's critique of the Schmittian theorem: Blumenberg, Hans, The Legitimacy of the Modern Age, trans. Wallace, Robert M. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1985), 89–102Google Scholar.
112 Schmitt, Politische Theologie, 53.
113 d'Allonnes, Myriam Revault, Le Dépérissement de la politique: Généalogie d'un lieu commun (Paris: Flammarion, 2002), 204Google Scholar.
114 de Tocqueville, Alexis, L'Ancien régime et la révolution (Paris: Flammarion, 1988), 85Google Scholar.
115 Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 1, part 1, chap. iv, 109.
116 Tocqueville to Kergolay, 10 November 1836, in Œuvres complètes, vol. 13.1, ed. Jardin, André (Paris: Gallimard, 1977), 418Google Scholar.
117 Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 2, part 1, chap. viii, 52–54. On that topic, see Jaume, Lucien, Tocqueville: Les Sources aristocratiques de la liberté (Paris: Fayard, 2008), 232–34Google Scholar.
118 Tocqueville, De la Démocratie en Amérique, vol. 1, introduction, 41.
119 See Mitchell, Joshua, The Fragility of Freedom: Tocqueville on Religion, Democracy, and the American Future (London: University of Chicago Press, 1995)Google Scholar.
120 Jaume, Tocqueville, 94.
121 See Ossewaarde, Marinus, “Tocqueville and the Continuation of the Theological-Political,” European Journal of Political Theory 7, no. 1 (2008): 99–109CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
122 Tocqueville to Kergolay, 5 August 1836, in Œuvres complètes, vol. 13.1, 387.