POLITICS, CONSTITUTION AND NOMOS: The Constitutional Theories of Schmitt and Arendt

Abstract

The present article aims to analyze and, subsequently, to compare the concepts of constitutionalphilosophies from Hannah Arendt and Carl Schmitt . Despite the ideological differences thatseparate the two authors, the hypothesis of this article is that certain theoretical affinities allow anexplanation of the constitutional phenomenon in a political perspective. This perspective isextremely relevant to the current state of the debate concerning the relation between politics andconstitution - dominated by a vision which separates and quietens the first. In this sense, in orderto set out the discussion, a brief overview is made of their theories and biographies intending tocontextualize them in a historical, political and philosophical way. Further, the concepts of"unity", "representation", "identity" and "political", from the work of Schmitt, are compared withthose of "power", "freedom", "action" and "common world", from Arendt's theoreticalframework. This comparison’s purpose is to demonstrate that the authors base their political andconstitutional theories in a similar vision of the political phenomenon. Finally, is reached theconcept of Nomos, whose meaning allows us to understand the relation between politics and theconstitution, in the work of both authors. The aforementioned concept allows the analysis of thepolitical and constitutional order through a dynamic perspective, inserting politics within theconstitutional structure and displacing the first to the status of a conditio sine qua non for thefoundation and existence of the second.