Political concept

This is the first text of the legal and constitutional scholar and the most famous political theorist, Carl Schmitt, translated into Arabic directly from German in a complete and accurate legal translation. Schmitt (1888-1985) lived a long life that spanned nearly a century, during which he witnessed great horrors surrounding his homeland Germany and the entire world. In this text—whose first lecture was delivered in 1927 and later published as a book in 1932 amid political disintegration and a comprehensive defeat suffered by his country—Schmitt addresses the issue of the "political," aiming to free its concept from the constraints of moral standards and economic calculations, revealing its core in the existential alignment of humans into enemies and friends, which grants the state representing this alignment the authority of sovereign decision-making that is unrestrained except by itself. In this text, Schmitt does not aim merely to present a new contribution to legal and political theory, but also to restore the significance of political authority with its absolute powers over society. He saw this as a remedy for Germany, his afflicted homeland, which was plunged into disintegration and fragmentation, returning it to liberalism. The similarity of the historical context in which Schmitt issued this text to the current situation of the Arab world, along with Schmitt’s intelligence, brilliance, and unique interpretation of this context—differing from and even criticizing the long-standing Marxist tradition of leftist critique of liberalism, and focusing his critique on these traditions—are among the most important factors that motivated us to translate and make this text available to Arabic readers, as it offers a different perspective on political affairs and public management.