The balance of fears

Abstract

Based on some elements of Michel Foucault's thought, this article shows that the emphasis put on security apparatuses by contemporary political governmentality reveals a complex economy of power with social and political unfoldings, especially the production of fear. First, the article highlights the creation of a milieu of delinquency through the relations between discipline and security devices, and how the concept of “dangerous individual” is produced in this milieu. Then, we discuss the relationship between these apparatuses and the juridical and legal mechanisms, and see how this leads to the notion of “endangered individual”. We conclude that the prevalence of security appara­tuses in contemporary societies reconfigures the juridical, legal and disciplinary technologies of power, as well as stimulates both the culture of fear and social insecurity. Faced with such a situation, a “balance” between the fear for security that leads to inaction and one that leads to action and resistance is seen as a possibility of resistance.