Dr. Marius Turda
Panel 1 Greater Romania
Abstract
Biopolitics forcefully encapsulates the representation of the nation as a living organism, functioning according to biological laws, and subsumed to the authority of the secular state. Biopolitics placed the nation-state within a scientific realm, one whose legitimacy stemmed from the dual claim that it could improve the “health of the population”, and protect the “racial qualities of the nation”. As the modern state became increasingly obsessed with its historical mission, namely to create a nation which was racially, spiritually and linguistically homogeneous, it also resorted to coercive mechanisms — such as stigmatisation, discrimination, segregation, and ultimately cleansing — in order to protect its members and eliminate those who were socially, ethnically and sexually different.
