ABSTRACT
Political representation, a consequence of the modern state, is today said to be in crisis, specifically the representation offered by mainstream political parties. The identity of a people is, according to Schmitt, dependent on representation so that there is no real possibility of escaping from representation. Schmitt at first sight seems to require the presence or existence of a people as a political unity as precondition for the act of constituent power. The thought/concept/idea of representation contradicts the democratic principle of the self-identity of the people present as a political unity. Although there are signs of the traditional conception of representation in Schmitt, that is, of representation being understood as a reproductive re-presentation, a weakened double of the thing itself, he can also be said to radically rethink the classical concept of representation. This chapter seeks to show the inextricable relationship between identity and representation in Schmitt's thinking.
