코로나19 방역정책의 생명정치이론적 분석

Abstract

Every Quarantine policy implemented under the title of protection and management from the COVID-19 reminds of Michel Foucault’s theory of ‘biopolitics’ that power is exercised in the form of state power managing the lives of the population. Biopolitics refers to the phenomenon mainly used for the state power to protect and manage the lives of the people under the needs of the times. Foucault states that from the 15th century to the 19th century, the main operation method of power shifted from sovereign power to disciplinary power where power penetrates the individual’s body, and then to biopower which manages the whole population. Foucault’s biopolitics refers to a form of politics that protects the wellness and lives of the population through the following two methods: disciplinary power that controls individual physical body and biopower that controls the entire population. Fear and chaos from such epidemics inject state power in the people’s body and facilitate management of the whole population, thereby enhances the ‘biopolitics’ phenomenon. In other words, ‘biopolitics’ is a major concept expressing the COVID-19 pandemic era. Thus, this paper discusses how Foucault’s theory of ‘biopolitics’ can be applied in the current COVID-19 pandemic situation and analyzes from Foucault’s perspective to find how the state’s responses to the COVID-19 help people to understand the COVID-19 better and protect the whole population. Although administration of biopower has been enhanced under the unavoidable pandemic situation, the state’s quarantine policies can not be justified. People’s horror is intensified under such national emergency, which facilitates use of public power by the state could result in the enlargement of state power. Therefore, this paper reflects whether we easily allowed the state to invade, regulate and control our day to day lives, and how we can handle a new virus in the future with the lessons and self-reflections learned from the current pandemic.