AFF ANSWERS

OIL ADV LINK-TURN

The United States dependence on o!ei"n oi# has p!od$ced a c$#t$!a# and po#itica#
pheno%enon that $e#s i%pe!ia#ist &a! and a sec$!iti'ation o indi(id$a#it) *) the
do%estic pop$#o$s o A%e!ica+
,a%p*e## -. Professor of Cultural and Political Geography in the Department of Geography at Durham University in the UK (David, The
iopolitics of !ecurity" #il, $mpire, and the !ports Utility %ehicle,& 'merican (uarterly )*+, (-..)/ 01,20*-, 3!T#4/55a6erg
This argument, 7hich 7as controversial, sought to discipline domestic 6ehavior 6y lin8ing it to e9ternal
danger+ #ne ironic response to the campaign, first made 6y columnist 'rianna :uffington, 7as to argue that if funding terrorism 7as the concern,
then ;soccer moms; driving sports utility vehicles (!U%s/ 7ere more easily lin8ed to the pro6lem through the
increased revenues for <iddle $ast oil producers their reliance on an uneconomical family vehicle generated+ :uffington
reported that t7o :olly7ood producers had 7ritten spoof scripts for advertisements that parodied the #=DCP campaign+ >in8ing individual
consumer choice 7ith the international threat of the moment, one of these scripts declared the
!U%s par8ed in families? drive7ays to 6e ;the 6iggest 7eapons of mass destruction+;1 :uffington?s
column generated considera6le de6ate, and a ne7 lo66y group the Detroit Pro@ect 7as launched so the anti2!U% advertisements could 6e produced and
6roadcast as part of a campaign to lin8 improved fuel efficiency 7ith national security+ 'lthough most television stations refused to air the commercials
(demonstrating a corporate fear of controversy/, they garnered much attention, and came to highlight the cultural clash 6et7een !U% manufacturers
and users and those concerned a6out the vehicles? communal effects+) This controversy raged in the months leading up to
the U+!+2 led invasion of AraB in -.., and 7as part of a larger discourse a6out the relationship
6et7een oil and security+ Chile the #=DCP campaign targeted the casual narcotic user, the Detroit Pro@ect
advertisements in effect sa7 the United !tates as an addict 7hose oil ha6it could 6e satisfied
only 6y an act of international crime+ oth arguments sought to individualiDe responsi6ility 6y positing a
tight causal connection 6et7een personal choice and political effect, there6y follo7ing in a long line of issues
7hose social and political conte9t have 6een su6sumed 6y the politics of individualiDation+ Chile the Detroit Pro@ect advertisements simplified issues in
a manner a8in to the #=DCP campaign, in the conte9t of the relationship 6et7een oil and security, they did
raise difficult issues 7ith respect to the relationship 6et7een the domestic and the foreign+ Chile
individual !U% o7ner2drivers cannot 6e said to directly endorse terrorism simply as a result of automotive choice, it is the case that the !U% has
come to underpin U+!+ dependence on imported oil+ This dependence in turn underpins the U+!+
strategic interest in glo6al oil supply, especially in the <iddle $ast, 7here the 'merican military
presence has generated such animus+ 's a result, the !U% sym6oliDes the need for the U+!+ to maintain
its glo6al military reach+ Given the dangers this glo6al military presence provo8es, it might 6e
possi6le to say the !U% is one of 'mericas greatest national security threats+ This article e9plores
the validity of those connections as part of a critical e9amination and retheoriDation of the
relationship 6et7een oil and security+ Ats aim is to conceptualiDe the relationship 6et7een individual choices and geopolitical
effects, yet to do so 7ithout adopting the moral leveling of crude arguments that demoniDe certain individual 6ehaviors in the correlation of drugs, oil,
and terror+ Central to this rethin8ing of the relationship 6et7een oil and security is an appreciation
of the role la7 has played in ma8ing the !U% possi6le, and the 7ay different la7s have
com6ined to produce a series of cultural, social, and political effects that stretch 6eyond
'mericas 6orders+ U+!+ environmental legislation in the early E0*.s especially the Clean 'ir 'ct of E0*. and the $nergy Policy Conservation
'ct of E0*), 7hich esta6lished fuel economy standards permitted the differential treatment of cars and light truc8s, 7hich the automa8ers e9ploited to
the detriment of 6oth efficiency and the environment+ The rise of the !U% has also 6een made possi6le 6y 6uilding
codes, Doning regulations, and legislation such as the Anterstate :igh7ays and Defense 'ct of
E0)F, all of 7hich have materialiDed ur6an 'mericas reliance on private transport+ !upported
further 6y ta9 re6ates and trade tariffs, the !U% has come to em6ody a form of radically
individualistic citiDenship that is 6eing under7ritten 6y ne7 developments in @urisprudence+F
:o7ever, the impact of domestic la7 reaches 6eyond domestic society+ Contrary to the ne7 citiDenships ethos of autonomy and disconnection, the
!U% has played a role in creating a num6er of international legal effects, most nota6ly the
United !tates? re@ection of the Kyoto Protocol to the United =ations Grame7or8 Convention on
Climate Change and the illegal invasion of AraB+ The conceptual starting point for the reBuired rethin8ing of the relationship
6et7een oil and security is that the interconnections 6et7een 7hat appear as individual consumer preferences for
certain vehicles and their geopolitical effects should 6e regarded as part of a comple9 called
;automo6ility+; An 3ohn Urry s assessment, ;automo6ility can 6e conceptualiDed as a self2organiDing autopoietic, non2linear
system that spreads 7orld7ide, and includes cars, car2drivers, roads, petroleum supplies and
many novel o6@ects, technologies and signs+;* 's a comple9 system, automo6ility has profoundly affected
the social and geographical structure of daily life+ An the environment it has spa7ned, the territorialities of
home, leisure, and 7or8 have 6een ;un6undled; such that ur6anism has 6een ;splintered+;H Chile
automo6ility is recogniDed as a 7orld7ide system, not7ithstanding the occasional references to oil rich states, petroleum supplies, and import
dependence, the focus of the literature is principally domestic, 7ith relatively little attention to the glo6al security conte9t+0 This essay argues that 7ith
the un6undling of domestic territorialities in the conte9t of ne7 glo6al net7or8s, 7e need to appreciate the 7ay (especially
though not e9clusively in the United !tates/ the ;un6ounded; consumption of automo6ility
produces an ;un6ordered; sense of the state in 7hich security interests e9tend 7ell 6eyond the
national homeland+ 't the same time, this deterritorialiDation of the space of automo6ility and its security effects does not mean 7e e9ist
a6ove and 6eyond territory+ To the contrary, the glo6aliDation of automo6ility and its security implications
results in the c!eation o ne& *o!de!#ands &ith $ne(en conse/$ences + These
6orderlands are conventionally understood as distant, 7ild places of insecurity 7here o!ei"n
inte!(ention &i## *e necessa!) to ens$!e do%estic inte!ests a!e sec$!ed + They
include Dones of e9ploration and the spaces traversed 6y pipelines, 6oth of 7hich involve the
further marginaliDation of impoverished indigenous communities+ The fate of these people and
places is su6sumed 6y the privilege accorded a resource (oil/ that is central to the 'merican 7ay
of life, the security of 7hich is regarded as a fundamental strategic issue+E. :o7ever, if 7e understand
6orderlands as spatially disparate contact Dones 7here practices intersect, actors and issues meld into one another, and
conflicts potentially arise, then the translocal 6orderlands of automo6ility encompass net7or8s
that connect cultures of individual consumption 7ith practices of glo6al security+ They do so through
multiple sites of materialiDation and territorialiDation at ;home; and ;a6road+; 's a conseBuence, this argument intends not only to supplement the
automo6ility literature s focus on the ;inside,; 6ut also to overcome the 7ay arguments a6out resource conflicts emphasiDe the ;outside+; This essay
thus aims to 6ring the Buestion of security into the heart of the concern 7ith automo6ility to
demonstrate ho7 these consumer practices contri6ute to the production of national identity+ The
first step in this argument is to reconceptualiDe the relationship 6et7een foreign policy, security, and
identity so 7e can appreciate 7hat is at sta8e in lin8ing internal 6ehaviors 7ith e9ternal threats
at this @uncture in 'merican politics+ This allo7s us to set the grounds for a spatial
understanding that goes 6eyond the ;domestic; versus the ;foreign+; The second step is to consider ho7 the
domain of the cultural, social, and political can 6e conceptualiDed so that the comple9ity of the interconnections can 6e appreciated+ Central to this is an
understanding of the 7ay ;domestic; la7, regulation, and policy 7or8 to create the geopolitics of identity in the ne7 6orderlands of automo6ility+ This
is illustrated in this essays third and fourth sections, 7hich tell the story of U+!+ oil consumption, automo6ility, and regulation+ 4egulation
refers to more than governmental policyI it encompasses the Buestion of the production of
desire+ 'n account of the !U%?s rise to popularity as family transport in the United !tates thus demonstrates ho7 Buestions of
geopolitics and identity are lin8ed to a cultural politics of desire that e9ists 6eyond the
institutionaliDed sites of the state+ The !U% is the icon through 7hich the relationship of security
to automo6ility can 6e 6est understood, precisely 6ecause the !U% constitutes a cultural site
that transgresses the inside and outside of the nation and through the conceptualiDations of
security it 6oth em6odies and invo8es 6ecause the !U% folds the foreign 6ac8 into the domestic,
there6y rendering each pro6lematic+ Together these elements 7ill demonstrate that the predominant representation of oil as
simply an e9ternal, material cause of insecurity is insufficient for a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of contemporary geopolitics+
:o7ever, 7hile this article 7as prompted 6y and 7ritten in the conte9t of the U+!+2 led invasion of AraB and its aftermath, the argument is not see8ing
to e9plain the causes of and reasons for that invasion (fig+ A/+EE Anstead, it see8s to articulate an understanding of the conditions of possi6ility for the
specific decisions that led to that invasion as a particular moment of U+!+ (and allied/ glo6al strategy+ The effect of this U+!+2 led
security strategy is to ;re6order; the state in a multitude of cultural and political sites as a 7ay of
containing the social forces that have splintered 6oth conventional locales and frames of
reference
0ER12ENVIRON1ENT ADVS
The pe!% so#(es *est2the a#t is 3$st as #a&ed as the stat$s /$o4 *$t p#$!a#is%
a##o&s o! a *ette! $nde!standin" o po#ic) p!o*#e%s and so#$tions
Sch&anen et a#+4 55 professor of geography and the environment at #9ford (Tim, !cientific
research a6out climate change mitigation in transport" ' critical revie7,& Transportation
4esearch Part ' 1) 00,E..F, -.EE/55:K
Ce do not suggest that current practice in transport research a6out climate change mitigation
should 6e displaced 6y
these alternative analytical perspectives they inevita6ly come 7ith their o7n 6lind spots+ 'lso,
e9isting competencies
and e9cellence should 6e retained+ Ce rather envisage something resem6ling >onginoJs (-..-/ engaged
pluralism, according
to 7hich researchers employ different theoretical perspectives, use different epistemologies,
methodologies and methods,
and study different facets of climate change mitigation in such a manner that no perspective,
method or facet ta8es precedence
over, or marginalises, any of the others+ 4esearchers should try to learn from and a6out the 7or8 6y colleagues in different
traditions, engage in de6ate 7ith them regarding their evidence, methods, assumptions and reasoning, and use such
de6ates to refle9ively engage and e9tend their o7n assumptions and research+ Chilst communication across research
traditions
poses significant challenges, it is our firm 6elief that pluralism 7ill ultimately produce richer,
more te9tured understandings
of effective climate change mitigation in transport than at present+
0ER12TRAN0SORTATION
The pe!% a##o&s a s)ste% o *eni"n en"inee!in" that ta6es *oth saet) and socia#
aspects into acco$nt
Ne#$heni4 -5 Professor of Ur6an Transportation !tudies at the University of Cisconsin, <il7au8ee (<alindi, Changing Adentities in
Transportation" Definition and <easurement of Cultural $9clusion in Annovative Design,&
http"55777+msas+mali7atch+org5msas-..-5pdf5msasKpp.1HK)F+pdf/55:K
)+ DA!!$<A='TA#= '=D 'PP>AC'TA#=
Kno7ledge, information and culture are increasingly 6ecoming 6orderless as ne7 computer and
communication technologies are transforming the 7ay people 7or8, travel, communicate, and consume, hence, 7e cannot assume the
static traditional conservation of community practices and ideals+ Cithin the system of engineering infrastructure
elements, the physical manifestation of transportation facilities, there is a clear influence of
changing cultural aspirations to7ards modernity+ These and other issues 6ear directly on developing economies, their
sustaina6ility of infrastructure as 7ell as their social, and political institutions, 7e need to understand the comple9 issues
that confront a society 7ith deeply rooted traditional values 6ut 7ith an e9panding capacity for
scientific and technological manipulation of resources, so that engineering is practiced as a social as
7ell as a technical activity+
<oore (E0H*/ asserts that 7e need to understand the mutual relations and e9istence of human 6ehavior in a physical space, to improve environments+
This suggests the mutual dependence of physical environments and human activities+ Gurther, !chneec8loth (E0H*/ supports this position 6y suggesting
that infrastructure not only generates 8no7ledge a6out people and their environments, 6ut also creates a tool for meaningful interventions in the
design, maintenance and management of physical environments to improve on peopleJs e9periences+
)+E+ %alues
The performance of any transportation system should ideally 6e lin8ed directly to the needs of the transportation consumers+ 's it stands, most
transportation providers continue to use transportation criteria that do not reflect ethnic, racial
or gender social conte9ts+ $ngineering technology inevita6ly reflects a particular moment in time in terms of taste and techniBue+
Good technology ho7ever, also reflects Bualities related to values, norms, and therefore culture,
7ithin a community+ The cultural value of technology lies in its a6ility to respond to these
deeper sensi6ilities and to the tangi6le realities of place and to ma8e connections 7ith and enhance the specifics emanating from culture+
ecause culture is mostly reproduced through daily activities, education, religion, politics, gender and social status filter through culture to determine
areas that might still 6e valued as time progresses and technological advancements are assimilated into the population+ An evaluating road
pro@ects, 7e could start 6y e9amining social conseBuences and cultural diversities as 7ell as
technology+
F+ T:$ =$$D G#4 $=GA=$$4A=G !T'=D'4D!
:igh7ay capacity and road design manuals traditionally focus on specific methods for
calculating pro@ect conformity 6ased on geometry and structural adherence+ There is an
apparent e9isting conflict of interest in standards provided 6y design manuals in general, in relation to the Bualitative value of
products to the communities 6enefiting from road pro@ects+ Chile it is ac8no7ledged that geometric design is an important element for safe and
functional roads, the purpose for guidelines provided often ignore the community values
such as cultural conte9ts+ The manuals 7ith their technological, analytical and numerical procedures do
allo7 for the production of successful structures that are efficient and safe to use, therefore
science and technological analyses remain important+ Technology and aesthetics 7ithout much scientific analysis 7ould
result in catastrophes, and despite the need to incorporate community values, road designs need to respond to the reBuired standards in order to
perform 7ithout posing safety haDards to the users+
The shortcomings of engineering manuals in their geometric adherence, ho7ever, not loo8 into
social issues+ <ost practitioners agree that this is a rigid tool in road pro@ects design and implementation (Dennison, E00)/, 6ut that manuals
are lac8ing in most other perspectives+ !ome authors ho7ever also vie7 this as a lac8ing gap in theory and practice, 7hich needs to 6e filled
(Passonneau, E0HHI ur8e L <ontoney, E00F/+
This conte9t is primarily linear (reductionistic/ and deterministic in nature, 7here6y systems can 6e o6served independent of the
o6server, and that the la7s that govern their 6ehavior can 6e deduced empirically through these ;o6@ective; o6servations
(su6@ect5o6@ect dualism/+
At is hard to imagine a physical (or mechanical/ 7orld that is not amena6le to such reductionism+ #ther aspects of concern to engineers of transport
facilities designers are for provision of services targeted at speed, efficiency and safety+ ecause facts are presented 6ut do not reBuire opposition, they
suggest ho7 phenomena should, and do occur, 7hich leads to their characteriDation as prescriptive or normative in nature, >ang (E0H*/, >ynch (E0HE/+
Design theories are schemes of ideas, concepts, or e9pressions, that relate and serve to define and propose 7hat and ho7 design procedures should 6e
carried out+
At is 6ecoming imperative, though, not only to construct physical transport systems that are
efficient, 6ut also for road pro@ects to capture the human elements to enhance cultural
significance+
*+ '= '>T$4='TA%$ %A$C #G $=GA=$$4A=G 'PP>AC'TA#=!
The shift in the culture of engineering is an am6itious pro@ect that 7ill necessitate research to develop a ne7 curriculum+ :o7ever, as this pro@ect gets
understand the conte9tual underpinnings of the ethical Buestions at play, understand the human decision2ma8ing processes and to e9pand their ethical
reasoning a6ility+ the engineering profession 7ould shift the emphasis from the engineer as a pro6lem
solver to the recognition that the 7ay a technical pro6lem is framed already contains ethical
choices, 6ut that they are a6le to thoughtfully reflect on their o7n internal assumptions as 7ell
as solve pro6lems in an o6@ective 7ay, @ust as they are capa6le of 6eing in an on2going dialogue 7ith other mem6ers of the societal decision
ma8ing process in an o6@ective 7ay+
!ocial values and ethics, ho7 they function, and 7hat they are 6ased on+ The emerging ethical issues arising from our technological developments,
relationship 6et7een the individual?s values, the technology that is 6eing created and, the values of society+ 's the model presented in figure E+E+ sho7s,
technology and ideals do e9ist in these society, so technological change is inevita6le+ :o7ever,
engineering standards 7ould 6e 6ased on shared ideals among the community or su6group+
NO I10A,T2LI7ERALIS1 ,8E,KS
Li*e!a# "o(e!n%ent so#(es2*iopo&e! %$st *e co%*ined &ith a concept o !acia#
so(e!ei"nt) to ca$se thei! i%pacts
Dean4 -9 professor of sociology at the University of =e7castle (<itchell, Gour Theses on the
Po7ers of >ife and Death,& Contretemps ), Decem6er -..1,
http"55sydney+edu+au5contretemps5)decem6er-..15dean+pdf/55:K
!econd Thesis" At is not merely the succession or addition of the modern po7ers over life to the
ancient right of death 6ut their very com6ination 7ithin modern states that is of significance+
:o7 these po7ers are com6ined accounts for 7hether they are malign or 6enign+ 'ccording to this
vie7, it is not the moment that life 6ecame a political o6@ect in the eighteenth century that defined the distur6ing features of modern
states+ 4ather, the different 7ays in 7hich 6io2politics is com6ined 7ith sovereign po7er decide their character+ Certain passages
from Goucaults lectures and from the :istory of !e9uality can 6e interpreted in this 7ay+ An a passage from the latter, Goucault
sho7s that the genocidal character of =ational !ocialism did not simply arise from its e9tension
of 6io2po7er+EF =aDism 7as concerned 7ith the total administration of the life, of the family, of
marriage, procreation, education and 7ith the intensification of disciplinary micro2po7ers+ ut it articulated this 7ith
another set of features concerned 7ith the oneiric e9altation of a superior 6lood,& of fatherland, and
of the triumph of the race+ An other 7ords, if 7e are to understand ho7 the most dramatic forces of life and
death 7ere unleashed in the t7entieth century, 7e have to understand ho7 6io2po7er 7as articulated
7ith elements of sovereignty and its sym6olics+ Pace auman, it is not simply the development of
instrumental rationality in the form of modern 6io2po7er, or a 6ureaucratic po7er applied to life that ma8es the
:olocaust possi6le+ At is the system of lin8ages, re2codings and re2inscriptions of sovereign notions of
fatherland, territory, and 6lood 7ithin the ne7 6io2political discourses of eugenics and racial hygiene that
ma8es the unthin8a6le thin8a6le+ The fact that all modern states must articulate elements of
sovereignty 7ith 6io2politics Contretemps ), Decem6er -..1 -E also allo7s for a virtuous com6ination+
The virtue of li6eral and democratic forms of government is that they deploy t7o instruments to
chec8 the unfettered imperatives of 6io2po7er, one dra7n from political economy and the other
from sovereignty itself+E* >i6eralism see8s to revie7 the imperative to govern too much 6y
pointing to the Buasinatural processes of the mar8et or of the e9changes of commercial society that are e9ternal
to government+ To govern economically means to govern through economic and other social processes e9ternal to government and
also to govern in an efficient, cost2effective 7ay+ >i6eralism also invo8es the freedom and rights of a ne7
su6@ectMthe sovereign individual+ y governing through freedom and in relation to freedom, advanced li6eral
democracies are a6le to differentiate their 6io2politics from that of modern totalitarian states and
older police states+
DE1O,RATI, 7IO0OLITI,S :OOD2VTL
The 6!iti6 c!eates a distinction *et&een *io#o"ica# and po#itica# #ie that dest!o)s
(a#$e to #ie
Fassin4 5- 2 !ocial !cience Prof at Princeton (Didier, $thics of !urvival" ' Democratic 'pproach to the Politics of >ife& :umanity" 'n
Anternational 3ournal of :uman 4ights, :umanitarianism, and Development, Gall, %ol E =o E, Pro@ect <use/55dm
Conclusion !urvival, in the sense 3acBues Derrida attri6uted to the concept in his last intervie7, not only shifts lines that are too
often hardened 6et7een 6iological and political lives" it opens an ethical space for reflection and
action+ Critical thin8ing in the past decade has often ta8en 6iopolitics and the politics of life as
its o6@ects+ At has thus unveiled the 7ay in 7hich individuals and groups, even entire nations, have 6een
treated 6y po7ers, the mar8et, or the state, during the colonial period as 7ell as in the contemporary era+ :o7ever, through
indiscriminate e9tension, this po7erful instrument has lost some of its analytical sharpness and heuristic
potentiality + #n the one hand, the 6inary reduction of life to the opposition 6et7een nature and history, 6are
life and Bualified life, 7hen systematically applied from philosophical inBuiry in sociological or
anthropological study, erases much of the comple9ity and richness of life in society as it is in fact
o6served+ #n the other hand, the normative pre@udices 7hich underlie the evaluation of the forms of life
and of the politics of life, 7hen generaliDed to an undifferentiated collection of social facts, end
up 6y dep!i(in" socia# a"ents o #e"iti%ac)4 (oice4 and action + The ris8 is therefore 6oth
scholarly and political+ At calls for ethical attention+ An fact, the genealogy of this intellectual lineage reminds us that the
main founders of these theories e9pressed tensions and hesitations in their 7or8, 7hich 7as
often more comple9, if even sometimes more o6scure, than in its reduced and translated form in
the humanities and social sciences today+ 'nd also 6iographies, here limited to fragments from !outh 'frican lives that A
have descri6ed and analyDed in more detail else7here, suggest the necessity of complicating the dualistic models
that oppose 6iological and political lives+ Certainly, po7ers li8e the mar8et and the state do act
sometimes as if human 6eings could 6e reduced to mere life,& 6ut democratic forces, including from
7ithin the structure of po7er, tend to produce alternative strategies that escape this reduction+ 'nd people
themselves, even under conditions of domination, N$nd Page 0,O manage su6tle tactics that transform their physical
life into a political instrument or a moral resource or an affective e9pression+ ut let us go one step further"
ethnography invites us to reconsider 7hat life is or rather 7hat human 6eings ma8e of their
lives, and reciprocally ho7 their lives permanently Buestion 7hat it is to 6e human+ The 6lurring
6et7een 7hat is human and 7hat is not human shades into the 6lurring over 7hat is life and 7hat is not life,& 7rites %eena Das+ An the trac8s of
Cittgenstein and Cavell, she underscores that the usual manner in 7hich 7e thin8 of forms of life not only o6scures the mutual a6sorption of the
natural and the social 6ut also emphasiDes form at the e9pense of life+&-- At should 6e the incessant effort of social
scientists to return to this inBuiry a6out life in its multiple forms 6ut also in its everyday
e9pression of the human+
7IO0OWER INEVITA7LE
7iopo&e! is ine(ita*#e
W!i"ht4 ;--< 2 Gello7 at the Centre for Glo6al Political $conomy (=athan,Camp as
Paradigm" io2Politics and !tate 4acism in Goucault and 'gam6en&,
http"55cc@ournal+cgu+edu5pastKissues5nathanK7right+html/55dm
Perhaps the one failure of GoucaultJs that, unresolved, rings as most ominous is his failure to further e9amine the pro6lem of 6io2
political state racism that he first raises in his lecture series, !ociety <ust e Defended+ 't the end of the last lecture,
Goucault suggests that *io-po&e! is he!e to sta) as a i=t$!e o %ode!nit) + Perhaps given
its focus on the preservation of the population of the nation it 7hich it is practiced, 6io2po7er
itself is something that Goucault accepts as here to stay+ Pet his analysis of 6io2politics and 6io2
po7er leads inevita6ly to state2sanctioned racism, 6e the government democratic, socialist, or
fascist+ 's a result, he ends the lecture series 7ith the Buestion, :o7 can one 6oth ma8e a 6io2
po7er function and e9ercise the rights of 7ar, the rights of murder and the function of death,
7ithout 6ecoming racistQ That 7as the pro6lem, and that, A thin8, is still the pro6lem+& At 7as a
pro6lem to 7hich he never returned+ :o7ever, in the space opened 6y GoucaultJs failure to solve the pro6lem of state
racism and to ela6orate a unitary theory of po7er& ('gam6en E00H, )/ steps 'gam6en in an attempt to complete an analysis of
Goucauldian 6io2politics and to, 7hile not solve the pro6lem of state racism, at least give direction for further inBuiry and hope of a
politics that escapes the pro6lem of this racism+
7iopo&e! Deense
7iopo#itics c!eates a *ette! #ie- *eneits o$t&ei"h the costs
Dic6ison, ;--9 2 associate professor of history at UC Davis ($d7ard 4oss, iopolitics,
Gascism, Democracy" !ome 4eflections on #ur Discourse a6out ;<odernity&&, accessed from
3!T#4 on *515E-/55R
At is stri8ing, then, that the ne7 model of German modernity is even more relentlessly negative than the old Sonderweg model+ An
that older model, premodern elites 7ere constantly triumphing over the democratic opposition+ ut at least there 7as an oppositionI
and in the long run, time 7as on the side of that opposition, 7hich in fact em6odied the historical movement of moderniDation+ An
the ne7 model, there is virtually a 6iopolitical consensus+
E
'nd that consensus is almost al7ays fundamentally a nasty, oppressive
thing, one that parta8es in crucial 7ays of the essential Buality of =ational !ocialism+ $very7here 6iopolitics is intrusive,
technocratic, top2do7n, constraining, limiting+ iopolitics is almost never conceived ofM or at least discussed in any
detail M as creating possi6ilities for people, as e9panding the range of their choices, as
empo7ering them, or indeed as doing anything positive for them at all+ #f course, at the most simple2
minded level, it seems to me that an assessment of the potentials of modernity that ignores the 7ays in 7hich 6iopolitics has made
life tangi6ly 6etter is someho7 deeply fla7ed+ To give @ust one e9ample, infant mortality in Germany in E0.. 7as
@ust over -. percent I or, in other 7ords, one in five children died 6efore reaching the age of one
year+ y E0E,, it 7as E) percentI and 6y E0-0 (7hen average real purchasing po7er 7as not significantly higher than
in E0E,/ it 7as only 0+* percent +
-
The e9pansion of infant health programs M an enormously
am6itious, 6ureaucratic, medicaliDing, and sometimes intrusive, social engineering pro@ect M had
a great deal to do 7ith that change + At 7ould 6e 6iDarre to 7rite a history of 6iopolitical moder 2
nity that ruled out an appreciation for ho7 a6solutely 7onderful and astonish ing this
achievement M and any num6er of others li8e it M really 7as+ There 7as a reason for the
Machbarkeitswahn of the early t7entieth century" many marvelous things 7ere in fact 6ecoming machbar. An that sense, it is
not really accurate to call it a Wahn& (delusion, craDiness/ at allI nor is it accurate to focus only on the inevita6le& frustration of
delusions& of po7er+ $ven in the late E0-.s, many social engineers could and did loo8 7ith great satisfaction
on the changes they genuinely had the po7er to accomplish+
7iopo#itics c!eates st!on" "o(e!n%ent th!o$"h citi'en *eneits- 6e) to de%oc!ac)
and !eedo%
Dic6ison4 ;--9 2 associate professor of history at UC Davis ($d7ard 4oss, iopolitics,
Gascism, Democracy" !ome 4eflections on #ur Discourse a6out ;<odernity&&, accessed from
3!T#4 on *515E-/55R
=or should 7e stop at a ree9amination of 8no7ledge and technology+ At might ma8e sense, too, to ree9amine the process of
institution26uilding, the ela6oration of the practices and institutions of 6iopolitics+ =o dou6t the creation of pu6lic and
private social 7elfare institutions created instruments for the study, manipulation, or control of individuals and groups+ ut it
also generated opportunities for self2organiDation and participation 6y social groups of all
8inds + Grossmann s 6irth control movement 7as 6ut one instance of the e9plosive gro7th of the universe of associational life in
the field of 6iopolitics, 7hich itself 7as only one small part of a much 6roader development" the self2creation of a ne7,
ur6an industrial social order, the creation of a self2government of soci ety through myriad
nongovernmental organiDations+ An these organiDations, cit iDens 7ere acting to shape their o7n lives
in 7ays that 7ere often fundamentally important as part of lived e9perience M of the life
7orld+& #f course there 7as nothing inherently democratic a6out these organiDations or their social functions M many 7ere
authoritarian in structure, many cultivated a tendentially elitist culture of e9pertise, and some pursued e9clusionary and
discriminatory agendas+ =evertheless, they institutionaliDed pluralism, solicited participation, enforced
pu6lic de6ate, and effectively sa6otaged simple authoritarian govern ment+ 'gain, =ational
!ocialist totalitarianism 7as in part a response precisely to the failure of political, social, and
cultural elites to contain and control this proliferation of voices, interests, and influence
1See for example Usborne, The Politics and Grossmann, Reforming Sex.
2MB. R. Mitchell, European Historical Statistics, 1750170 (New York, !"#$, %&. B' !(! it had fallen to ).% percent
(%)$.
groups+
,
Private organiDations, further, 7ere not the only ones that helped to 6uild ha6its and structures of participation+ The
German state deli6erately recruited citiDens and nongovernmental organiDations to help it formulate and implement 7elfare
policy+ At had to, for no state could possi6ly mo6iliDe the resources necessary for such a gigantic tas8+ 'nd of course often the
policy initiative came from the other direction M from private organiDations engaged in ela6orating
6iopolitical discourses of various 8inds, and 7or8ing to mo6iliDe the authority and resources
of the state to achieve the ends they defined for themselves+ That 7as an intended
conseBuence of the creation of a democratic repu6lic + 's !+ =+ $isenstadt 7rote in -..., an important part of
the pro@ect of modernity 7as a very strong emphasis on the autonomous participation of
mem6ers of society in the constitution of the social and political order+&
1
'gain, the massive, state2
orchestrated mo6iliDation of the German population in the =aDi period or in the German Democratic 4epu6lic (not least in
7elfare organiDations/ should remind us that such mo6iliDation is not necessarily democratic in natureI this is a point made
amply for the Ceimar period too 6y, for e9ample, Peter GritDsche+
)
ut o6viously, it could 6e, and in fact, 6efore E0,, and after
E010 in the Gederal 4epu6lic of Germany, very often 7as+ #ne ans7er might 6e to argue M as <ichael !ch7artD and Peter
GritDsche have suggested M that regimes that arise for reasons having little to do 7ith this aspect of modernity choose& their
6iopolitics to suit their needs and principles+ %ictoria de GraDia, for e9ample, has suggested that differing class coalitions
determine regime forms, and that regime forms determine the shape& of 6iopolitics+
F
This is o6viously not the approach that has
predominated in the literature on Germany, ho7ever, 7hich has e9plored in great depth the positive contri6ution that modern
6iopolitics made to the construction of =ational !ocialism+ This approach may 7ell e9aggerate the importance of 6iopoliticsI 6ut,
in purely heuristic terms, it has 6een e9tremely fruitful+ A 7ant to suggest that it might 6e eBually fruitful to stand it on its head,
so to spea8+ #ne could easily conclude from this literature that modern 6iopolitics fits& primarily authoritarian, totalitarian,
technocratic, or other7ise undemocratic regimes, and that democracy has prevailed in $urope in the teeth of the development of
technocratic 6iopolitics+ 'gain, ho7ever, the history of t7entieth2century Germany, including the five decades after Corld Car
AA, suggests that this is a fundamentally implausi6le idea+ ' more productive conclusion might 6e that 7e need to 6egin to
7or8 out the e9tent and nature of the positive contri6u tion 6iopolitics has made to the
construction also of democratic regimes + Chy 7as $uropeJs t7entieth century, in addition to 6eing the age of
6iopolitics and totalitarianism, also the age of 6iopolitics and democracyQ :o7 should 7e theoriDe this relationshipQ A 7ould li8e
to offer five propositions as food for thought+ Girst, again, the concept of the essential legitimacy and social
value of indi vidual needs, and hence the imperative of individual rights as the political
mechanism for getting them met, has historically 6een a cornerstone of some strategies of
social management+ To 6orro7 a phrase from Detlev Peu8ert, this does not mean that democracy 7as the a6solutely
inevita6le& outcome of the development of 6iopoliticsI 6ut it does mean that it 7as one among other pos si6le
outcomes of the crisis of modern civiliDation+&
*
!econd, A 7ould argue that there is also a causal fit
6et7een cultures of e9per tise, or scientism,& and democracy+ #f course, scientism& su6verted the real,
historical ideological underpinnings of authoritarian polities in $urope in the nineteenth century+ At also in a sense replaced
them+ Democratic citiDens have the freedom to as8 7hy&I and in a democratic system there is
therefore a 6ias to7ard pragmatic, o6@ective& or naturaliDed ans7ers M since values are often
regarded as matters of opinion, 7ith 7hich any citiDen has a right to differ+ !cientific fact& is
democracyJs su6stitute for revealed truth, e9pertise its su6sti tute for authority+ The age of
democracy is the age of professionaliDation, of technocracyI there is a deeper connection
6et7een the t7o , this is not merely a matter of historical coincidence+ Third, the vulnera6ility of
e9plicitly moral values in democratic societies cre ates a pro6lem of legitimation+ #f course there are
moral values that all democratic societies must in some degree uphold (individual autonomy and freedom, human dignity,
fairness, the rule of la7/, and those values are part of their strength+ ut as peopleJs states, democratic social and
political orders are also implicitly and often e9plicitly e9pected to do something positive and
tangi6le to enhance the 7ell26eing of their citiDens+ #ne of those things, of course, is simply to provide a
rising standard of livingI and the visi6le and astonishing success of that pro@ect has 6een crucial to all Cestern
democracies since E01)+ 'nother is the provision of a rising standard of healthI and here again, the
democratic 7elfare state has delivered the goods& in concrete, measura6le, and e9traordinary
7ays+ An this sense, it may not 6e so simpleminded, after all, to insist on considering the fact that
modern 6iopolitics has 7or8ed& phenome nally 7ell+
3See Stanle' S*+al, Electoral Politics in !ilhelmine "erman# (,hapel -ill, !.#$ and Mar/aret 0nderson, Practicing
$emocrac#% Elections an& Political 'ulture in (mperial "erman# (1rinceton, )&&&$. 2here is a /ood disc*ssion of these iss*es
in Geo3 4le', 52he Social ,onstr*ction.6
44isenstadt, 5M*ltiple,6 #. 7or an e+en more positi+e assessment of 58estern modernit',6 see ,harles 2a'lor, 5Modern Social
9ma/inaries,6 Pu)lic 'ulture : ()&&)$; esp. !), !!, &%.
5See 7rit<sche, 5=id 8eimar 7ail>,6 (%.? also his Germans and Rehearsals for Fascism: Populism and Political Mobilization
in Weimar Germany (New York, !!&$.
6See @ictoria de Gra<ia, Ho* +ascism Rule& !omen (Berkele', !!)$, %.
71e*kert, 5Genesis,6 ):),)%(.
De%oc!ac) chec6s !adica#i'ation o *iopo#itics2e%pi!ica##) p!o(en+
Dic6inson -9 ($d7ard 4oss, 'ssociate Professor of :istory at the University of California2Davis, iopolitics, Gascism, Democracy" !ome
4eflections on #ur Discourse a6out ;<odernity;&, in Central $uropean :istory, %ol+ ,*, =o+ E (-..1/, pg EH2E0+/
An an important programmatic statement of E00F Geoff $ley cele6rated the fact that Goucault?s ideas have ;fundamentally
directed attention a7ay from institutionally centered conceptions of government and the state +++
and to7ard a dispersed and decentered notion of po7er and its ?microphysics+?;1H The ;6roader, deeper,
and less visi6le ideological consensus; on ;technocratic reason and the ethical un6oundedness of science; 7as the focus of his interest+10 ut the
;po7er2producing effects in Goucault?s ?microphysical? sense; ($ley/ of the construction of social 6ureaucracies and
social 8no7ledge, of ;an entire institutional apparatus and system of practice; (3ean (uataert/, simply do not e9plain =aDi
policy+). The destructive dynamic of =aDism 7as a product not so much of a particular modern
set of ideas as of a particular modern political structure, one that could realiDe the disastrous potential of those ideas+
Chat 7as critical 7as not the e9pansion of the instruments and disciplines of 6iopolitics, 7hich occurred every7here in $urope+ Anstead, it 7as the
principles that guided ho7 those instruments and disciplines 7ere organiDed and used, and the e9ternal constraints on them+ An =ational !ocialism,
6iopolitics 7as shaped 6y a totalitarian conception of social management focused on the po7er and u6iBuity of the vol8isch state+ In
de%oc!atic societies4 *iopo#itics has histo!ica##) *een const!ained *) a !i"hts-
*ased st!ate") o socia# %ana"e%ent+ This is a point to 7hich A 7ill return shortly+ Gor no7, the point is that 7hat 7as
decisive 7as actually politics at the level of the state+ ' comparative frame7or8 can help us to clarify this point+ #ther states passed
compulsory steriliDation la7s in the E0,.s + Andeed, individual states in the United !tates had already 6egun doing so in E0.*+
Pet they did not proceed to the ne9t steps adopted 6y =ational !ocialism, mass steriliDation,
mass ;eugenic; a6ortion and murder of the ;defective +; Andividual figures in, for e9ample, the U+!+ did ma8e such
suggestions+ ut neither the political structures of democratic states nor their legal and political principles permitted such poliQ cies actually 6eing
enacted+ =or did the scale of forci6le steriliDation in other countries match that of the =aDi program+ A do not mean to suggest that such programs 7ere
not horri6leI 6ut in a democratic political conte9t they did not develop the dynamic of constant
radicaliDation and escalation that characteriDed =aDi policies+
De%oc!ac) chec6s *iopo#itica# coe!cion and (io#ence+
Dic6inson -9 ($d7ard 4oss, 'ssociate Professor of :istory at the University of California2Davis, iopolitics, Gascism, Democracy" !ome
4eflections on #ur Discourse a6out ;<odernity;&, in Central $uropean :istory, %ol+ ,*, =o+ E (-..1/, pg ,-+/
'gain, as Peu8ert pointed out, many advocates of a rights26ased 7elfare structure 7ere open to the idea that ;stu66orn; cases might 6e legitimate tar2
gets for steriliDationI the right to health could easily 6e redefined as primarily a duty to 6e healthy, for e9ample+ ut the difference 6et7een
a strategy of social management 6uilt on the rights of the citiDen and a system of racial policy
6uilt on the total po7er of the state is not merely a semantic oneI such differences had very
profound political implications, and esta6lished Buite different constraints+ The rights26ased strategy 7as
actually not very compati6le 7ith e9clusionary and coercive policies I it relied too heavily on the
cooperation of its targets and of armies of volunteers, it 7as too em6edded in a democratic
institutional structure and civil society, it lac8ed po7erful legal and institutional instruments of coercion, and its rhetorical
structure 7as too heavily slanted to7ard inclusion and tolerance+
De%oc!ac) chec6s *iopo#itica# (io#ence+
Dic6inson -9 ($d7ard 4oss, 'ssociate Professor of :istory at the University of California2Davis, iopolitics, Gascism, Democracy" !ome
4eflections on #ur Discourse a6out ;<odernity;&, in Central $uropean :istory, %ol+ ,*, =o+ E (-..1/, pg ,)+/
An short, the continuities 6et7een early t7entieth2century 6iopolitical discourse and the practices of
the 7elfare state in our o7n time are unmista8a6le+ oth are instances of the ;disciplinary society; and of 6iopolitical,
regulatory, social2engineering modernity, and they share that genealogy 7ith more authoritarian states, including the =ational !ocialist state, 6ut also
fascist Ataly, for e9ample+ 'nd it is certainly fruitful to vie7 them from this very 6road perspective+ ut
that analysis can easily 6ecome superficial and misleading, 6ecause it o6fuscates the profoundly different strategic and
local dynamics of po7er in the t7o 8inds of regimes+ Clearly the democratic 7elfare state is not only formally 6ut
also su6stantively Buite different from totalitarianism + '6ove all, again, it has no7here
developed the fateful, radicaliDing dynamic that characteriDed =ational !ocialism (or for that matter
!talinism/, the psychotic logic that leads from economistic population management to mass murder+
'gain, there is al7ays the potential for such a discursive regime to generate coercive policies+ An those cases in 7hich the regime of rights does not
successfully produce ;health,; such a system can and historically does create compulsory programs to enforce it+ ut again, there are political
and policy potentials and constraints in such a structuring of 6iopolitics that are very different
from those of =ational !ocialist Germany+ Democratic 6iopolitical regimes reBuire, ena6le, and
incite a degree of self2direction and participation that is functionally incompati6le 7ith
authoritarian or totalitarian structures + 'nd this pursuit of 6iopolitical ends through a regime of
democratic citiDenship does appear, historically, to have imposed increasingly narro7 limits on coercive
policies, and to have generated a ;logic; or imperative of increasing li6eraliDation+ Despite limitations
imposed 6y political conte9t and the slo7 pace of discursive change, A thin8 this is the unmista8a6le message of the really very impressive 7aves of
legislative and 7elfare reforms in the E0-.s or the E0*.s in Germany+0.
7iopo&e! is st!ate"ica##) !e(e!si*#e2it can *eco%e a too# o !esistance and
e%po&e!%ent
,a%p*e##4 >< 2 professor of international politics at the University of =e7castle 2 E00H (David,
Criting !ecurity" United !tates Goreign Policy and the Politics of Adentity,& pg+ -.12-.)/
The political possi6ilities ena6led 6y this permanent provocation of po7er and freedom can 6e
specified in more detail 6y thin8ing in terms of the predominance of the 6io2po7er& discussed
a6ove+ An this sense, 6ecause the governmental practices of 6iopolitics in Cestern nations have 6een
increasingly directed to7ard modes of 6eing and forms of life M such that se9ual conduct has 6ecome an
o6@ect of concern, individual health has 6een figured as a domain of discipline, and the family has 6een transformed into an
instrument of governmentM the ongoing agonism 6et7een those practices and the free dom they see8 to
contain means that individuals have articulated a series of counterdemands dra7n from those
ne7 fields of concern+ Gor e9ample, as the state continues to prosecute people according to se9ual orientation, human rights
activists have proclaimed the right of gays to enter into formal marriages, adopt children, and receive the same health and insurance
6enefits granted to their straight counterparts+ These claims are a conseBuence of the permanent provoca tion
of po7er and freedom in 6iopolitics , and stand as testament to the strategic reversi6ility& of
po7er relations" if the terms of governmental practices can 6e made into focal points for
resistances, then the history of government as the Sconduct of conductJ is inter7oven 7ith the
history of dissenting Scounterconducts+&J,0 Andeed, the emer gence of the state as the ma@or
articulation of the political& has in volved an unceasing agonism 6et7een those in office and
those they rule+ !tate intervention in everyday life has long incited popular collective action, the result of 7hich has 6een 6oth
resistance to the state and ne7 claims upon the state+ An particular, the core of 7hat 7e no7 call ScitiDenshipJ consists of multiple
6argains hammered out 6y rulers and ruled in the course of their struggles over the means of state action, especially the ma8ing of
7ar+& An more recent times, constituencies associated 7ith 7omenJs, youth, ecological, and peace movements (among others/ have
also issued claims on society+ These resistances are evidence that the 6rea8 7ith the
discursive5nondiscursive dichotomy central to the logic of interpretation undergirding this
analysis is (to put it in conventional terms/ not only theoretically licensedI it is empirically 7arranted+
Andeed, e9panding the interpretive imagination so as to enlarge the categories through 7hich 7e understand the constitution of the
political& has 6een a necessary precondition for ma8ing sense of Goreign PolicyJs concern for the ethical 6orders of identity in
'merica+ 'ccordingly, there are manifest political implications that flo7 from theoriDing identity+ 's 3udith utler concluded" The
deconstruction of identity is not the deconstruction of politicsI rather, it esta6lishes as political the very terms through 7hich
identity is articulated+&