Introduction

This chapter argues that Schmitt’s defense of amnesties is objectionable and even inconsistent with some strands of his political theory. Engaging with Schmitt’s advocacy of amnesties is important not only for the sake of coming to grips with his political thought. Schmitt defends an unrestricted right of political communities to go to war. In Political Theology, Schmitt summarizes his understanding of sovereignty in a lapidary fashion: the sovereign is he who decides the state of exception. Schmitt seeks to find an independent criterion appropriate to politics for justifying political actions and motives. A collectivity is a political body only to the extent that it has enemies. In a phrase, distinguishing ones enemies from oneself is the essence of politics. Sympathetic to Zeus diagnosis of the situation, Schmitt says about cycles of vengeance such as this one: this kind of political cleansing could ruin the whole nation.