{"id":174054,"date":"2026-03-05T10:07:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=174054"},"modified":"2026-03-05T12:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T20:20:11","slug":"democracy-and-the-politics-of-the-extraordinary-max-weber-carl-schmitt-and-hannah-arendt-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=174054","title":{"rendered":"Democracy and the Politics of the Extraordinary: Max Weber, Carl Schmitt, and Hannah Arendt (2008)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This book by Andreas Kalyvas helps us understand the Iran War.<\/a><\/p>\n

1. Wars Create \u201cExtraordinary Politics\u201d That Break Normal Rules<\/p>\n

The book argues that democratic systems normally operate through routine institutional politics, but occasionally politics shifts into an extraordinary phase where the existing legal and institutional order is disrupted. In those moments:<\/p>\n

normal procedures lose authority
\ndecisions become centralized
\nnew actors emerge suddenly<\/p>\n

This maps directly onto wartime politics and explains why the prestige hierarchy among experts and institutions is shifting so quickly. During normal politics, prestige sits with bureaucrats, diplomats, and procedural experts.<\/p>\n

During extraordinary moments, prestige flows toward decisive leaders, strategists, and actors capable of rapid action.<\/p>\n

The book emphasizes that these moments often occur outside the normal constitutional order and force a redefinition of political authority. That is the \u201cState of Exception.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Foundational Moments Redefine Political Orders<\/p>\n

A key concept in the book is that rare events sometimes allow a political community to redefine itself and its institutions. The author draws on three thinkers:<\/p>\n

Max Weber (charisma)
\nCarl Schmitt (sovereign decision)
\nHannah Arendt (political founding)<\/p>\n

Sometimes wars become founding events that create new political realities.<\/p>\n

Examples historically:<\/p>\n

World War I \u2192 collapse of empires
\nWorld War II \u2192 new global order
\nCold War end \u2192 new European system<\/p>\n

My analysis of Kurdish mobilization, Gulf alignment shifts, and Turkish maneuvering<\/a> fits exactly into this framework. Actors are not just reacting to the war. They are positioning themselves for the founding moment that might follow it.<\/p>\n

3. The People Exist Both Inside and Outside the System<\/p>\n

Political systems always have an \u201coutside\u201d that cannot be fully controlled by institutions. This outside includes protests, insurgencies, irregular militias, and extra-legal political movements. These actors are not just disruptions. They are integral to political transformation.<\/p>\n

Groups like Kurdish militias are not merely irregular forces. They represent the political outside of the Iranian state. When the central state weakens, that outside suddenly becomes politically decisive.<\/p>\n

4. Charismatic Leadership Appears in Crises<\/p>\n

Drawing on Max Weber, the book stresses that extraordinary moments often produce charismatic leadership, where authority flows from decisive action rather than institutional legitimacy. This is important for interpreting contemporary politics. In routine times authority comes from bureaucratic procedures. In crises, authority shifts toward leaders who appear capable of decisive action such as the military and that boosts the prestige of certain actors. It also explains why strong executive power becomes more accepted during war.<\/p>\n

5. Revolutions and Crises Often Create Permanent States of Exception<\/p>\n

The book also warns about a danger: extraordinary politics can slide into permanent emergency rule. Historically many revolutions began as transformative moments but ended as prolonged emergency systems. This insight matters for the Iran war. If the Iranian regime collapses or fragments, the region may enter a long period where normal political institutions are weak, military actors dominate and legal orders remain unstable.<\/p>\n

So the \u201cexception\u201d might not be temporary. It could become the new normal.<\/p>\n

6. Why the Book Clarifies the Iran War<\/p>\n

The book suggests that the current conflict is not just another Middle East crisis. It may represent an extraordinary political moment with three possible outcomes:<\/p>\n

Restoration
\nIran survives and re-stabilizes the existing regional order.<\/p>\n

Reconfiguration
\nIran weakens but survives while regional power balances shift.<\/p>\n

Founding moment
\nThe Iranian state collapses or transforms, creating a new regional political structure.<\/p>\n

Most analysts focus on military operations. The book suggests the deeper question is whether this war becomes a founding event in regional politics.<\/p>\n

Extraordinary politics is not merely emergency power. It is a moment when institutions weaken, new actors emerge, and political orders can be re-founded. That is precisely the situation along Iran\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n

Further thoughts:<\/p>\n

1. The Breakdown of the “Iron Cage”<\/p>\n

Kalyvas draws on Max Weber to explain how normal politics\u2014the “iron cage” of bureaucratic routine and expert-led management\u2014is shattered during extraordinary moments. In the context of the Iran war, Nate Swanson represents the “normal” procedural expert whose prestige currency is devalued when the sovereign (the executive) chooses to act outside the established “scripts”.<\/p>\n

Charismatic Shifts: Weber argued that crises produce charismatic leadership where authority flows from decisive action rather than institutional legitimacy. This explains why current praise for “peace through strength” is centered on the personality of the leader rather than the consensus of the “Blob”.<\/p>\n

Symbolic Foundations: Charismatic politics aims at the “symbolic foundations of power,” creating new collective identities. The formation of a unified Kurdish command (CPFIK) is a classic example of creating a new political “we” that exists outside the old state-based institutional order.<\/p>\n

2. The Sovereign Decision and the “State of Exception”<\/p>\n

Kalyvas reconstructs Carl Schmitt\u2019s theory to show that the “sovereign” is not just someone who manages an emergency, but the subject who “decides on the exception” to found a new order.<\/p>\n

Constituent Power: Sovereignty is defined as the “constituent power” to create a new constitution or political form. The strikes on Tehran and the resulting decapitation of the regime are not just “punishment”; they are acts that create a “normative nothingness” from which a new regional hierarchy can emerge.<\/p>\n

Apocryphal Acts: Schmitt noted that popular sovereignty survives even in “apocryphal” (inauthentic) ways during normal times, but “wakes up” during the extraordinary. The surge in grassroots mobilization along the Iranian borders represents the “slumbering popular sovereign” reclaiming its power to redefine the state.<\/p>\n

3. Founding Moments vs. Absolute Breaks<\/p>\n

The book uses Hannah Arendt to offer a crucial warning about the difference between “absolute” and “relative” new beginnings.<\/p>\n

The Mirage of the Total Break: Arendt criticized the French Revolution for attempting an absolute rupture (a tabula rasa), which she argued leads inevitably to violence and the “vicious circle” of revolutionary terror. If the “Strategic Hawks” push for a total erasure of the Iranian state, Arendt\u2019s theory suggests the result will be a permanent state of exception or a rapid restoration of tyranny.<\/p>\n

Relative Foundings: Conversely, Arendt praised the American Revolution for being a “relative” founding that built on existing bodies (like colonial assemblies). The “independent volunteers” of the Kurdish groups or the shifting alliances of the Gulf states could be seen as the “pre-constituted” bodies necessary to stabilize a new order without falling into the “abyss of freedom”.<\/p>\n

4. The Survival of Freedom<\/p>\n

Arendt\u2019s most significant contribution, according to Kalyvas, is her focus on how freedom can survive its own institutionalization.The Three-Track Model: Kalyvas advances a model where democracy operates on three levels: instituting moments (the founding), instituted politics (the bureaucracy), and spontaneous mobilization on the fringes.<\/p>\n

Civil Disobedience as Bridge: During the Iran war, dissent from the “Antiwar Right” or “Managerial Diplomats” acts as a “semi-extraordinary” force that attempts to pull the sovereign back into a framework of legality and self-limitation.<\/p>\n

5. Why the “Prestige Pendulum” Swings<\/p>\n

Kalyvas\u2019s analysis explains why the “prestige hierarchy” is currently favoring Hawks over Managers.Managers of the Ordinary: Bureaucrats like Swanson gain status by protecting the “instituted reality”. In a war, which is the ultimate “extraordinary” event, their tools (hedging, risk assessment) appear as “sterile passivity”.<\/p>\n

Architects of the New: Strategists like Dubowitz gain “prestige velocity” because they offer a “script” for the founding moment. They present themselves as the “architects” of a “new political space,” aligning their status with the creative power of the sovereign act.<\/p>\n

The book suggests that the Iran war is a “founding moment” where the “organized multitude” is acting outside the state to “instaure” a new order. The question is no longer how to return to the status quo, but who will have the “constituent power” to authorize the new regional reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This book by Andreas Kalyvas helps us understand the Iran War. 1. Wars Create \u201cExtraordinary Politics\u201d That Break Normal Rules The book argues that democratic systems normally operate through routine institutional politics, but occasionally politics shifts into an extraordinary phase … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42763,183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-carl-schmitt","category-iran"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t