Individual Biopolitics and Biopolitics of the State

Abstract

If we reject the idea of chronological suc-cession of liberal democracy and totalitarian systemsand acclaim the genealogical perspective instead, wewill notice another structural division or rift. Here it isnot at stake the vertical di_erentiation between totali-tarianism and liberal democracy but the horizontal one:democracy and communism (as a radicalisation ofegalitarianism) vs. biopolitics (consisting of two anti-thetical, but complementary forms: Nazism and liber-alism, state and individual biopolitics). In Nazismhuman being is its own body, for liberalism (from Lockeahead), human owns his/her body, so is able to use it,change it and even sell it. In this light Nazism in itsbasic categories reverses the liberal perspective and grantthe possession of the body to the state instead of indi-vidual, not leaving behind the very conditions of bio-political thinking.I argue, that biopolitical character of liberalism dif-ferentiates it from democracy and communism mostly.Essay attempts to analyse above mentioned oppositionin vertical, as well as horizontal dimension, in order tohave a more in-depth insight in the roots of totalitariansystems and to put under scrutiny the liberal sourcesof contemporary biopolitical regimes.

Keywords

• biopolityka
• liberalizm
• neoliberalizm
• totalitaryzm
• demokracja
• państwo