Collective insecurity: Responses to the unexpected

Abstract

Given the current pandemic, States have adopted strategies focused on the exercise of power, which encroach on individual freedoms, as a markedly biopolitical option. This article reviews the current debates on these measures and their consequences, especially from the perspective of philosophy and politics. It makes a distinct emphasis on the tension between security, health, and the economy. It considers how the need to seek solutions in the face of the threat to public health and the risk of death is being used to nullify democratic coexistence by some governments at present. Likewise, the influence of biopolitics and its relationship with the political ideologies of governments in times of pandemics is discussed to identify the need for specific changes in the post-pandemic world order.