Carl Schmitt’s Confrontation with the Work of Hannah Arendt: A Debate on Totalitarianism, Power, and Banality of Evil

Abstract

ABSTRACT Carl Schmitt read The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963), and several essays from Hannah Arendt. By utilizing Schmitt’s extensive comments on Arendt and other novel materials, this essay reconstructs a ‘debate in absence’ between Schmitt and Arendt concerning the nature of totalitarianism, political power, and banality of evil. First, I demonstrate how Schmitt became greatly excited about The Origins, which he (mis)read as an exculpatory document that allowed him to draw an absolute distance between himself and the more racist strains of Nazism. Second, I show how and why Schmitt’s understanding of Arendt became more reserved after he read Eichmann in Jerusalem. Beyond offering a novel empirical starting point for comparing Schmitt and Arendt and providing a comparative account of their understandings of Nazi totalitarianism, power, and political responsibility under totalitarian regimes, the article also contributes to the broader discussions surrounding the nature totalitarianism and on the debates around Arendt’s report on Eichmann.