The concept of the political

This chapter presents an analysis of the new 'structure' of the concept of the political which comes to the fore in Derrida's reading. This new structure must be at the heart of any attempt to rethink constitutional theory after Derrida, as the concept of the political is central to Schmitt's Constitutional Theory. Schmitt's attempt at strictly defining the political in The Concept of the Political is motivated by the problem of depoliticisation, which he observes in the 'disappearance' of the enemy in the twentieth century. In Constitutional Theory, Schmitt expresses a similar concern about depoliticisation, specifically insofar as the conception of the modern liberal constitution is concerned. In The Concept of the Political, in drawing a distinction between polemos (war between Greeks and barbarians) and stasis (internal strife), as well as between polemios/hostis (public enemy) and ekhthros/inimicus (private enemy), Schmitt relies in a footnote on Plato's Republic.