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

This article takes up the question of whether emergencies are altogether
extraordinary events that occur in unforeseeable circumstances or whether they are
more ordinary dynamics, which also characterize times of normal politics. In facing this
issue, the article sets forth an alternative reading of Schmitt’s conception of the state of
exception, interpreted in the light of his work of the 1930s. Based on this analysis, the
exception is portrayed not as the foundational moment of a political community, but as a