In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

LEAGUE OF NATIONS 127
land, and Spain upset this scenario of harmony by making their approval
of Germany's admittance contingent on their own permanent representation
in the Council of Nations. Individually, none of these four
countries was strong enough to impose its will. But a positive decision
on Germany's entry could not be reached without them, because it
required a unanimous vote. So the plenary assembly adjourned on
March 17 (Chronik, 52f£.). This is the national humiliation to which
Unamuno refers, and to which the Spanish government reacts by announcing
its resignation from the League of Nations on June 10 (Langer,
992). For Unamuno, the dignity of a nation, which he believes Spain
lacks, is embodied in the ethical values and public behavior of its representatives.
Although by calling the members of Primo de Rivera's government
"little tyrants for rent" he is explicitly pointing to their disregard
for public opinion (Unamuno, 193), he presupposes, somewhat
paradoxically, that the dignity of the nation and of every Spaniard-including
the dignity of those who, like himself, are persecuted by their
government-is compromised by the failures of Spain's politicians. From
this perspective, belonging to a nation is indeed analogous to being a
member of a family. [see Collectivity vs. Individuality]
In the context of the inadequate expectations arising from such a point
of view and from the highly idealistic discourses that surround the
League of Nations, Carl Schmitt, a professor of law at the University of
Bonn, publishes a small book during the days of the debate over Germany's
entry. Criticizing the current conflation of the semantics of individuality
with the semantics of collectivity in the concept of nationhood
[see Collectivity = Individuality (Leader)], as well as the reduction of
conflicting political interests to the model of a family quarrel, Schmitt
wishes to distinguish the State as a political system and from the people
or nation: "In truth, the term Volkerbund refers to relationships between
states and their governments, not between peoples or-despite the
French appellation 'Societe des Nations' or the English 'League of Nations'-between
nations" (Schmitt, 4ff.). Consequently, the sphere of
politics, where politicians negotiate relations of power, has to be separated
from the world as a community of nations. On the basis of similar
distinctions, Schmitt argues-counter to those who hail the League of
Nations as the realization of a utopian ideal-that the acknowledgment
of particular political interests, of their unavoidable conflict, and even of
a hierarchy in the realm of political power is a necessary condition for