The rule of law necropower: the management of death in the first North American world O necropoder do império da lei: a gestão da morte no primeiro mundo Norteamericano

Abstract

The article develops necropower notions of the rule of law and the necropolitical govern- mentalization of the State as specific forms of necropower in North America. Based on the governmentality of Achille Mbembe and Michel Foucault, the researcher affirms that in third world countries like Mexico, state power is intertwined with criminal organizations. The fu- sion of the criminal state results in institutions and policies for the administration of death, which in turn leads to the reproduction of the illegal accumulation of capital, the necropolitical governmentalization of the state. In addition, based on diverse interpretations of necrop- ower in the first world, the author maintains that the United States and Canada impose their sovereign power to kill not above or below the law, but through it. The first world countries of North America use legal frameworks to accumulate capital through activities that produce death in specific geographies and spaces based on nationality, ethnicity, race, class, and gender. The chapter calls this necropower the rule of law. The common ground in both types of necropower is lucrative death.