Statistical argument: construction, uses and controversies. Prices and purchasing power

Abstract

Political uses of figures, whether they are statistics, accounts or those used for all sorts of classifications and evaluations, are well known. Nevertheless, there are still several avenues to be explored if we are to understand how these uses are proliferating, changing and being refined, with numbers being used to evaluate individual practices as much as public policies and to administer the apparatus of state as much as to govern populations.