Ricerc@Sapienza

This article traces a developmental trajectory in Schmitt’s conception of law that brings out
alternative conceptualizations of the exception. “Transcendence”, “immanence” and
“integration” signify three different models to represent the relation between what I call
“nomic force” (the particular phenomenon of bringing order) and “materiality” (the matter-offactness
of a particular entity or phenomenon). I contend that while Political Theology feeds off a
transcendent model, where a sovereign decider makes materiality speakable, The Concept of the

This article offers an unconventional interpretation of Carl Schmitt’s conception of the political. It first identifies two alternative readings – an
‘exceptionalist’ and a ‘concretist’ one – to make the claim that in the late 1920s he laid the foundations for a theory of politics that overcame the
flaws of his theory of exception. It then explains why the concretist reading provides an insightful key to Schmitt’s take on the relationship