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Biopolitics and Electoral Campaign from an Anticipatory Perspective

Citizenship
Democratisation
Advertising
Campaign
Methods
Political Cultures
Paula Espírito Santo
Universidade de Lisboa - Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas
Paula Espírito Santo
Universidade de Lisboa - Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas

Abstract

Biopolitics is a classic and contemporary area and can be seen as a meeting area and driving force of the modern State (in a Foucauldian vision). Through this contribution we aim to explore the concepts and relationship of biopolitics, biopower and governability. Out starting question derives from the question initially posed by Foucault: to what extent can the affirmative politics of life transform into negative politics, characterized by exclusion and violence (thanatopolitics)? This is a field that has been developed by several perspectives, mainly from Philosophy. Foucault's Sécurité, Territoire, Population (following a course taught at the Collège de France in 1977-1978) focuses on the politics of life, biopolitics and biopower. In his work, the idea of the modern State embraces the dimension of power in the light of the lens of biopolitics, in its relationship with biopower and governability. The New Political Prince who would go from «souveraineté» to «gouvernementalité». The search for a praxis to determine the limits of the concept of governability would involve reflection on the limits between it and governance, in institutional accountability. Despite being classic, the area of Biopolitics is an area with clear applicability in the field of political communication, allowing for closer ties, at a strategic level, between political power and communities. Trying or maintaining power means having political solutions and above all getting the electorate to adhere to them. In other words, essential to the conception of political, partisan strategies, with objectives of leadership of a State, is the technical capacity (supported by the theory of persuasion) to make civil society accept the management project of the political system (Espírito Santo and Lisi; 2015). In several contexts, several contributions have been important to develop biopolitics, such as is the case of Brazil. In Brazil, the study of biopolitical campaigns made it possible to identify communicative strategies and contexts of application at different times (Bezerra e Silva, 2019). Following Foucalt (1976; 2005), and his contribution to In Defense of Society, Course at the Collège de France, Bezerra and Silva (2019) remember that not only epidemics are a concern for biopolitics, but diseases in general and permanent disability factors associated with economic, health and low productivity costs. Considering this framework, we intend to answer the following starting question: how has biopolitics played a role in the political campaign taking into account its strategic function, from an anticipatory perspective? In methodological terms, we will consider a set of campaigns in several countries that will be analysed using the content analysis technique in order to identify the relationship between the political communication and strategic political elements in an anticipatory perspective.