Il sovrano senza qualità. Note sul ‘politico’, la decisione, il soggetto

This article focuses on Carl Schmitt’s theory of sovereignty. In particular, Schmitt’s famous definition of sovereignty ("Sovereign is he who decides on the state of exception”) is considered as an attempt to responde to the (anthropological and political) 'crisis of the subject'. According to this article, Schmitt’s solution does not develop the radical implications of his conception of the ‘political’, in particular regarding the link between the 'political' and the 'human nature'. As Leo Strauss already emphasized, Schmitt does not bring the critic of liberalism beyond the theoretical horizon of liberalism, and in particular he does not abandon individualism and utilitarianism of liberalism.