Necropolitics

In these chapters, Mbembe explores historical examples of states of exception and traces liberal democracy to its roots in colonialism, following the genealogical tradition set by Michel Foucault. The French philosopher used the technique to follow the development of new manifestations of power over time. This analytical tool enables the exploration of an idea along a linear thread, though critics of genealogical approaches to philosophy argue that it is overly reliant on generating cause-and-effect relationships. By using concrete historical examples, Mbembe builds his larger thesis of necropolitics, the sociopolitical idea that governments exercise power by determining who lives and dies. Mbembe’s concept of necropolitics builds on Foucault’s theory of biopower, expanding it to show how Western philosophical thought supports and affirms the violence of colonialism and liberal democracy. This thesis encompasses the central themes of Mbembe’s book.

To thematically develop Democracy as Medicine and Poison, Mbembe opens with the argument that hostility and violence shape contemporary governments. He presents a strong rhetorical condemnation of anyone who attempts to evade responsibility. For the Cameroonian critic, everyone is responsible for the generation of desires and fears that create a need for states of injury and exception. Casting aside Hobbes and Locke’s ideas about the state of nature and the purpose and function of a democracy, Mbembe makes the bold claim that no true democracy has ever existed. He argues that the notion of liberal democracy as these philosophers outlined it reflects the pharmakon: While it serves and benefits those whose fears and desires give it shape, a state disadvantages and oppresses those beyond the physical and metaphysical wall.

The Politics of Space thematically encompasses the state of injury, the state of exception, or both. This maintains the balance of democracy’s dual nature as a force for power. Mbembe describes racism as a technology for this power; the state wields it to create a mythology. At the center of this mythological narrative is the juxtaposition of the hero with the Other. The enemy serves an important purpose to the narrative and, therefore, to the longevity of the mythology itself: the enemy’s death affirms the hero’s life.

In Discipline and Punish, Foucault further develops his theory of biopower and applies the genealogical technique to show how law and justice trended toward a more intimate and hidden exertion of power. For example, public executions were replaced with prison sentences. Mbembe builds on Foucault’s work to show how these hidden, third spaces perpetuate racism as a technological mechanism of separation and isolation, which develops the theme of Racism as a Technology for Power.

An interesting aspect of Mbembe’s book is how he uses the work of Western philosophers both to inform his work and to offer a foil to his ideas. While the term “necropolitics” is a direct reference to Foucault’s “biopower,” Mbembe uses the French philosopher’s work, as well as the power explorations of Hannah Arendt and Giorgio Agamben, to turn a mirror on them. Even as these authors convey important ideas about the structure and nature of power, Mbembe proposes that their ideologies cannot help but reflect the influence of their colonialist context.