What Is Biopower?

Biopower is defined as the “practice of modern nation-states regulating their subjects by subjugating their bodies and controlling populations through biopolitical techniques” (Foucault, 1984). To clarify of the definition of Biopower, biopolitics is the “control, regulation, and monitoring of bodies within a collectivity to maintain social control” (Foucault, 1984). In simpler terms, biopolitics is bio – life and politics – the activities associated with governance. Thus, biopolitics is the governance of life. In order to have an in depth understanding of biopower, it is vital to know the context in which the concept was born.
Michael Foucault, the philosopher who can up with the concept, was born in Poiters, France. One possible reason as
1). Another example, as Chavez accounts, is when “Sharron Angle ran against Democrat Harry Reid. Angle’s campaign aired an advertisement that featured three Latino-looking male youth, cross the image were the words, in bold, illegal aliens (p. 2). The statement on MSNBC and the anti-immigrant commercial is only two of many examples in which the media aimed to influence a certain type of thinking, a social norm. A social norm of viewing immigration as a problem, Latinos as a threat. This allows regulation to be implemented. As Chavez describes, “through the media, politicians desiring to restrict immigration have been able to represent undocumented immigrants as undeserving criminals and possible terrorists” (p. 10). This type of representation, isolating a group of individuals, is not new. Lupton writes in his book, Medicine as
This classification allows for the media’s continuous negative imaging of the Latino population. Surely, with the cause of the media reinforcing a ‘social norm’ of the Latino population, there is the effect of governmental regulation. For instance, Chavez documents “President Ronald Reagan signed into law, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). The major provisions were sanctions for employers who hired undocumented immigrants and an amnesty program for over a million undocumented immigrants” (p.8). It is clear, the purpose of passing such a law is to limit the number of undocumented immigrants who come to the US. However, the underlying motive behind this law is control. It is the supervision of the number of bodies that go in and out of the United States, the very definition of biopower. Another example is during the Clinton administration. President Clinton passed the PRWORA 1996 and IIRIRA 1996. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA 1996) requires all states to have a program that provides information about the newly hired, so that child support can be effectively enforced (Office of Child Support Enforcement). This law up front seems harmless. Though, it has some serious implications involved. That is to say, the requirement of providing information of the newly hired to the federal government is another form of biopolitics. To be clear, the federal