O liberalismo econômico e as práticas de segurança: o "avesso" das democracias liberais

Abstract

This article aims to analyze some of the paradoxes related to economic liberalism and the underlying security discourses that, although denying the basic principles of modern democracies, become part of them. In this exam the main theoretical axis will be Foucault’s thought. First, it will be pointed out that economic liberalism, in Foucaultian analysis, has as its premise an anthropological essence of being human, since it assumes as its starting point that freedom only flourishes in the absence of constraints. As this metaphysical premise imposes itself on the institutions of modern democracies, some developments are posed. Arises the notion that the role of democratic institutions is to provide freedom. However, there can be freedom only if there is security. Therefore, a paradox is imposed: democracies have freedom as their telos, but freedom presupposes security measures (in the war on terror, for example) that deny both democratic precepts and freedom itself.