6. Carl Schmitt and the Political Theology of Populism

This chapter examines Carl Schmitt’s theory of democracy in light of Max Weber’s concept of charismatic rule. It is argued that Schmitt’s crypto-theological understanding of democracy, which assimilates political leadership into prophetic authority, implies an expressive or identitarian conception of democratic community. The latter is at odds with a genuinely democratic understanding of popular consent and liable to provide ideological cover for authoritarian corruptions of democracy. The chapter concludes with the suggestion that a political theology that resembles Schmitt’s forms the ideological basis of contemporary populist interpretations of the democratic ideal. It is therefore wrong to regard populism as only being directed against liberal democracy. Populist ideology and political practice, rather, are inimical to democracy per se.