Circulation et appropriation d’idées : l’utilisation de Carl Schmitt par Miguel Reale dans la légitimation du coup d’État civil-militaire de 1964

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the use made by Miguel Reale of Carl Schmitt’s thought to legally legitimize the civil-military coup d’État in Brazil in 1964. We argue that Reale’s political thought evolved from fascist corporatism during his youth, towards a political thinking that was still authoritarian, but henceforth stripped of its fascist references and now based on a sophisticated philosophical and legal conceptual tool, in which the Schmittian concepts occupy a central place. To examine the use of Schmitt by Reale, we will examine the work of both: from the first, Political Theology (1922), The concept of the political (1927) and The Guardian of the Constitution (1928); from the second, his memoirs Destinos Cruzados and A Balança e a Espada (1987) and Imperativos da revolução de março (1964). This paper is divided into three parts. In the first, we examine some theoretical and methodological assumptions on which we relied to carry out our analyzes; in the second, we focus on the work of Carl Schmitt, highlighting the main concepts appropriate by Miguel Reale; in the third, finally, we analyze how Reale operationalized them to explain and, above all, to legitimize the military seizure of power in 1964.

Keywords

• Miguel Reale
• Carl Schmitt
• 1964 coup d’État
• legitimation
• circulation and appropriation of ideas