The technocratic reason in the government of emergency. A theoretical analysis on the management of the Covid-19 epidemic

doi:10.1285/i20356609v15i3p761

The technocratic reason in the government of emergency. A theoretical analysis on the management of the Covid-19 epidemic

Emilio Gardini

Abstract

The assumption on which this contribution is based that in liberal democracies the "political space" represents the confrontational space of coexistence in which lives are governed by "legitimate" power of politics. What we have observed over the course of about two years now is that the epidemic must be understood within this space and, as happens for the observation of all "social facts", it cannot be considered as an isolated phenomenon. The history of epidemics is therefore mainly a "social and political history"; just think of the way in which the use of measures to counter the contagion redesigns the meaning of coexistence and power relations. The Covid-19 epidemic comes at the end of an economic crisis that began in 2008 and should not be disconnected from this, despite the tendency in public opinion and the media to consider it an "external factor", exclusively a health issue relating above all to "vital processes". Therefore, this contribution intends to propose an examination of the "government of the emergency" in liberal, capitalist, de-collectivized societies through a theoretical approach (biopolitical and dialectical) which, on the one hand, investigates the relationship between government, power and contagion control devices and, on the other hand, explores the presuppositions of the crisis of knowledge that increasingly gives way to "technique" which becomes an administrative tool.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20356609v15i3p761

Keywords: Liberal democracy; health government; biopolitics; technocracy; dialectical thought

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