From the publisher: “In short, I think we need to re-read Schmitt, as well as Heidegger.” Jacques Derrida In 1954, nine years after the end of World War II, Carl Schmitt wrote a radio essay that was republished several times under the title “A Conversation on power and access to the ruler." This "Conversation" remains to this day one of the most effective works of Carl Schmitt. The text, written in a brilliant, laconic style, is in the form of a fictional conversation. Its topic: modern power from the point of view of the conditions of administrative techniques and methods. Schmitt defined power as a “social plexus” and an “independent magnitude.” Each ruler, according to Carl Schmitt, is forced to rely on “reports and information and depends on his advisers. Day after day and hour after hour, he is bombarded with many facts and messages, proposals and assumptions. From this endless stormy sea of truth and lies, reality and probability, even the smartest and most powerful man can draw, at most, only a few drops.” Schmitt’s thinking revolved around questions of power, force and the exercise of law. His extensive work was seriously influenced by such political philosophers and thinkers dealing with issues of state and law as Hobbes, Machiavelli, Rousseau, Donoso Cortes, Sorel and Pareto. Discourse on Power occupies a preeminent position among Schmitt's writings because of its lasting influence. About the author: Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) was one of the most influential German jurists, scholars of state and international law, and political philosophers of the twentieth century.