The Return of the Political: Carl Schmitt’s Contribution to Critical Criminologies.

This article postulates that the study of political violence and armed conflict contributes to critical criminological theory by suggesting to look into Carl Schmitt’s concept of ‘the political’ as an alternative to the more typical conceptualisations of ‘politics’ (i.e. Weberian -power-, Marxist -class struggle- or Foucualdian -domination). It is my contention that the latter dilute politics into the economic, social, cultural sphere given that almost everything can be surmise to be an issue of power, domination or class struggle whereas the former highlights the boundaries of the political realm while still allowing for analytical connections and links to be established with the other spheres of society. The concept of ‘the political’ has opened up new avenues for those working on issues of state crimes, mass atrocities and social harm. Moreover, it can reinvigorate critical criminology’s denunciation of the state, its social control apparatuses (such as the criminal justice system) as well as other modes of governance by articulating the destructive character of the criminal justice system and of similar forms of social control.