ABSTRACT

The relationship between Walter Benjamin and Carl Schmitt is a charged issue. For many years, just mentioning the two of them together was considered a trespass. This has been changing during the last two decades, presumably under the impact of the increased international interest in Schmitt’s work. As readers of Benjamin’s famous essay know, his ‘Critique of Violence’ begins by distinguishing between natural and positive law by analyzing the means-end relation inherent to each, and finishes by condemning something he calls mythic violence; the latter encompassing both ‘lawmaking’ violence as well as ‘law-preserving’ violence. Political mythology, as identified by Sorel, was a serious threat to the modern State and existing order in Schmitt’s view. The political institutions of the bourgeoisie were weak because of their reliance on parliamentary debate and legal-rational systems, neither of which were suited for mediating powerful popular energies.