INSTRUCTIONS:
Our discussion of the various ways that the notion of ‘politics’ has been understood has included three theorists that are decidedly a-liberal or anti-liberal in how they understand politics: Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Carl Schmitt. Explain how each of the foregoing is critical of the liberal notion of politics. Why does Marx draw a sharp distinction between human rights and political rights? What does he think the problem is with the modern split within us as members of civil society on the one hand and as citizens on the other. For Weber, why does he think that the state dominates us? Is the use of violence the core or only a tangential source of political power? For Schmitt, how is politics different from economics and aesthetics? Why it is important for him to know who it is that decides who the enemy is?