MODERN POPULISM IN C. SCHMITT’S POLITICAL THEORY CONTEXT

Abstract

The article examines the connection between modern populism and the political concepts of Carl Schmitt. The contribution of C. Schmitt’s politicalphilosophical heritage to the development of the general theory of authoritarianism is emphasized, which is manifested in a certain categorical apparatus and direction of the German thinker’s research. Since the 1990s, his political theory has been popular for several objective reasons: 1) the increased number of terrorist attacks around the world; 2) the categorical apparatus, which, against the backdrop of the terrorist threat and the «threat to democracy», has been used by the USA with new force to justify humanitarian interventions in other countries, as well as 3) dynamic globalization. The phenomenon of spin-dictatorship is studied. The following are the main characteristics of this type of authoritarian regime: 1) you need to be popular (among the masses); 2) having gained popularity, the dictator uses it to strengthen his power («convinces» the voters to give him extraordinary powers); 3) it is necessary to pretend to be democratic; 4) it is necessary to open up to the world; 5) brutal repression must be avoided, or at least concealed or masked when used; spin-dictators in this article are defined as leaders who pretend to be democratic rulers. It is indicated that since authoritarian countries today are mostly spindictatorships, populism is widely used by the leaders of these states and appears as their main tool for mobilizing the masses. It is noted that the actualization of C. Schmitt’s political theory in the context of populism belongs to the French post-structuralist philosopher E. Laclau, who considered populism a vivid expression of democratic thought. Thus, the antonymy of the concepts «democracy — liberalism», emphasized by C. Schmitt, is actualized. Taking into account that «the goal of populism is to vacate the place of power in order to occupy it again», there is a connection between populism and the theory of «sovereign dictatorship» of the German thinker. It is argued that a number of concepts of C. Schmitt’s political theory, namely: the «substance of equality» of the people, the democratic mechanism of «exclusion», the «friend-enemy» dichotomy, criticism of parliamentarism and liberal individualism, the identity of «the rulers» and «the ruled», in this case become thorough system of initial data, with the help of which it is possible to understand the ontological basis of the populism phenomenon.