The Triumph of indirect Powers

Abstract

The goal of this article is the historical-conceptual description of the process by which the so-called “indirect powers” ​​have managed to subjugate the sovereign power of the State through the use of biopolitics. In this regard, we will attempt to clarify the nature of such powers, taking as a guiding thread their relationship with three fundamental institutions of the modern world: the State, the market, and government. From its emergence in the mid-17th century until its establishment as a "form of government" in the 20th century, biopolitics has been the principal instrument used by capitalism to neutralize state sovereignty. The turning point in this process was the rise, at the beginning of the 20th century, of totalitarianism, especially the German National Socialist movement, which took the biopolitical instrumentalization of the State to its ultimate consequences. According to our hypothesis, due to the progressive neutralization of state sovereignty, generated by the gradual colonization of the State by indirect powers, a new form of organizing power developed, consisting of the control of life. Although this form of social control was not new, it only truly expanded with the disproportionate development of the market. By reading the work of Carl Schmitt, we will attempt to explain the process of weakening state sovereignty carried out by the various indirect powers; second, we will turn to the work of Michel Foucault to explain how the market and governmental biopolitics established themselves within state power itself, thus paving the way for the triumph of neoliberalism on a global scale; finally, thanks to the work of Giorgio Agamben, we will study the scope of the phenomenon of biopolitics in today's world.