Institutional turn

Carl Schmitt or Santi Romano?

Abstract

The article analyzes the problem of institutionalism in the work of Carl Schmitt and Santi Romano from the perspective of the critique of political theology. The author argues that it is a difficult operation due to the deep roots of political theology in the constitution of the modern political lexicon. Next, it probably reconstructs the controversy between Schmitt and Benjamin on political theology and then examines the problematic of constituent power in Schmitt's work and in the contemporary philosophical-political debate. After penetrating into schmittian institutionalism and its commitments to the Nazi regime, arguing that Schmitt will not come out of decisionist monism losing all innovative analytical potential in the field of institutionalism. Finally, the author delves into Romano's institutionalist thought, highlighting the relationship between law and its "outside" in three dimensions: the non-legal, the pre-legal and the anti-legal. After studying these three dimensions, the author concludes that Romano's legal ontology is protected from any theological-political excess