Carl Schmitt in Moscow: Counter-Revolutionary Ideology and the Putinist State

Abstract

Far from being a regime devoid of ideology, much of Russia’s political elite shares ideas and concepts that together constitute a consistent worldview based on anti-liberal and counter-revolutionary premises. Its basic categories, interpretations and concepts share important affinities with the constitutional and political theories developed by German jurist Carl Schmitt. Russian conservative thinking on the nature of sovereignty, the definition of the nation, theories of democracy, and emerging conceptualizations of international order all show remarkable overlaps with Schmittian anti-liberalism, but Russia’s recent political development also demonstrates the inevitable shortcomings of authoritarian anti-liberal ideologies in the 21st century.