Malkopoulou finds that Hermann Heller understood politics as a human science, since political realities are for him the result of creative human activity, that is, activity possessed with meaning. Hence, students of politics should focus as much on political activity as on the norms that should guide it. Likewise, the political is conditioned not only by conflict, caused by antagonistic social relations, but also by shared norms and rules.
To act politically is then to turn human conflict, which is unavoidable, into social cooperation. By valuing cooperation and legality over confrontation and decisionism Heller offered a conception of politics that was diametrically opposed to that of Carl Schmitt.
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