Biopolitics governs populations through statistics, not individuals

Evidence

The phenomena addressed by biopolitics are, essentially, aleatory events that occur within a population that exists over a period of time. On this basis—and this 1s, | think, the third important pomt—this technology of power, this biopolitics, will introduce mechanisms with a certain number of functions that are very different from the functions of disciplinary mechanisms. The mechanisms introduced by biopolitics include forecasts, statistical estimates, and overall measures. And their purpose is not to modify any given phenomenon as such, or to modify a given individual insofar as he is an individual, but, essentially, to intervene at the level at which these general phenomena are determined, to intervene at the level of their generality. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 261

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines biopolitics’ object (aleatory population-level events) and modality (forecasts, statistical estimates) in contrast to discipline.
• XREF: This statistical-population logic is what later readings on racialized population management in Islamophobia assume. — connects to: Totalitarian law applies to mankind as a species, not to individual behavior.; Official statistics constitute state administrative power rather than merely recording it — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 107; Sexuality is produced by biopower’s discourses, not a repressed secret to decode — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 293 (+1 more)

Related

• Totalitarian law applies to mankind as a species, not to individual behavior. (similarity 0.84)
• Biology represents what social engineering cannot yet alter (similarity 0.79)
• Demographic explosion and industrialization forced sovereignty to yield to biopower. (similarity 0.79)
• Disciplinary and biopolitical power are co-constitutive, not separate theories (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Official statistics constitute state administrative power rather than merely recording it #expands (0.90) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 107
• Sexuality is produced by biopower’s discourses, not a repressed secret to decode #expands (0.85) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 293
• Biology represents what social engineering cannot yet alter #complicates (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 186