Multidimensionality of power in hypermodern societies

In contemporary “hypermodern” societies power assumes variations appearing increasingly detailed and pervasive – in terms of forms and relationships –, with the consequence of bringing significant effects to the democratic quality of political systems. The following notes aim to analyze some of these forms and strategies, with particular reference to their impact on social and political spheres. Firstly, we discuss how the current pervasive and multidimensional nature of power clearly emerges from progressive integration, emerging from the best known studies on the subject, of a first “decision-making approach” – based on the observation of nature and distribution of power starting from the study of conflicts on “key issues” (Dahl) – with more in-depth analysis on the most latent modes in which the phenomenon express itself today (Bachrach and Baratz, Lukes). Then, among the multiple configurations of power relationships in late modernity, attention will be paid to the so-called “biopolitics", in reference to techniques that emerged during the nineteenth century, which involve not only the human body, but, more generally, man as a living being, addressing the typical processes of life, in order to “protect” and especially control them. In this way, thanks to its focus on the “productivity” of life, which leaves at the edge concern about death, biopolitics comes to be clearly distinct from the classical state sovereignty (Foucault). At last, media and political strategies appear very invasive as well, when they are used in order to “rule by fear” (Mongardini) within contemporary, paradoxical “risk culture”, marking a shift from the paradigm of the “Welfare State” to that of a “State based on personal safety”(Bauman), with the result of increasing the growing individualization of our societies.