Politics and Managerial Governmentality: an Arendtian Perspective

To what extent is the current policy “crisis” (high abstention rates, challenging politicians, etc.) linked to the implementation of macroeconomic policies ? To answer this question, we first present what we call managerial governementality. Then, based on the work of Hannah Arendt on the hope politics brings, we build an analytical framework to study political action. At last, thanks to this framework, we suggest that, by reducing the diversity of viewpoints and by developing dependency relationships, managerial governmentality could be one of the factors of the crisis.

Homo economicus or animal laborans. Is the economic agent the future for human beings?

Abstract This article presents and analyzes two representations of the economic agent; that of homo economicus in the works of John Stuart Mill (1806–1873), and that of animal laborans, an expression found in the works of Hannah Arendt (1906–1975). Both authors oppose a concept found in Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) that identifies human beings as economic agents, rational beings … Continue reading Homo economicus or animal laborans. Is the economic agent the future for human beings?