Depoliticization and Necropolitics

A Critical Examination of Lukashenka’s Regime

Bibliographic Data

ID6446293
AuthorsKatsiaryna Lozka (0000-0001-8191-1137, Ghent University, corresponding author), Andrey Makarychev (0000-0003-4527-6978, University of Tartu)
Year2024
Volume72
Issue1
Pages36-48
Publication date2024-02-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueProblems of Post-Communism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1075-8216 • E-ISSN: 1557-783X
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10758216.2024.2309360
OpenAlexW4391756847
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited70

This article examines the intertwined logics of depoliticization and necropolitics as central elements of illiberal authoritarian power in post-2020 Belarus. It sheds light on the technologies used by Lukashenka's regime to maintain its rule, including anti-feminist visuals, violence of mass incarceration, and dehumanization and demonization of political opponents. Relying on media analysis, the article discusses how these technologies function as mechanisms through which the regime enacts its necropolitical power to curtail any political engagement. Juxtaposing politicization with depoliticization and biopolitics with necropolitics, it advances a different understanding of these concepts in illiberal autocracies, emphasizing their mutually reinforcing relationship in Belarus

Authoritarianism · Autocracy · Biopower · Dehumanization · Democracy · Demonization · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · State (computer science · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Gender Studies · German History and Society · Law