Alain Supiot
Governance by numbers
This book shows that, by envisaging human beings as programmable computers, governance by numbers undermines the reign of law and resurrects a quasi-feudal system of allegiance.
Having inspired Taylorism and Soviet planning, the old Western dream of harmony through calculation has now taken the form of governance by numbers, aimed at the efficient achievement of measurable objectives. Driven by the digital revolution, this new institutional imaginary is that of a society where law gives way to programs and government to governance. But human beings cannot be programmed. As soon as their freedom and security are not guaranteed by a law that applies equally to all, they have no choice but to pledge allegiance to something stronger than themselves. Radicalizing the aspiration to objective power that already characterized the affirmation of the rule of law, governance by numbers paradoxically gives rise to a world dominated by the bonds of allegiance.
Supiot A., La Gouvernance des nombres, Paris, éditions Fayard, coll. " Pluriel ", 2020, 608 p.
Publication :19 August 2020
