Global Governmentality

5    Governing through the social

Representations of poverty and global governmentality¹

Cristina Rojas

There are, as we have already seen, conditions of society in which a vigorous despotism is in itself the best mode of government for training people in what is specifically wanting to render them capable of higher civilization.

(J.S. Mill 1859)

We must embark on a bold new program for … the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas. More than half the people of the world are living in conditions approaching misery. Their poverty is a handicap and a threat both to them and to more prosperous areas. For the first time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and the skill to relieve the suffering of these people.

(Truman 1949) ...