Biopolitics In The Ottoman Empire Summary

Miller describes biopolitics as focusing on the the health of the population as a whole, as opposed to the individuals within the society. but in more simplistic explanation, it is including everyday life into politics. The emersion of biopolitics, in some ways, eliminated the debate between authoritarian and liberal minds. As the family unit was is the smallest unit for political minds to develop in, the inclusion of family law makes entirely too much sense for it to be ignored. Thus biopolitics began to emerge in the Ottoman empire.

She explains the progression from standard politics to biopolitics in the Ottoman empire. As a rights based state, and seeing as it copied a portion of its regulations, those from the constitution, from napoleonic, french law. But with the tanzimat period, the era in which reforms were being made to all areas of politics in the Ottoman Empire, the state began to further incorporate gendered criminal codes. In 1926, the Ottoman Empire's successor, Turkey, started to take ideas from the Italians. This new development only increased the strength of the chokehold the state held

Both reproduction and sexuality no longer were off limits to government influence, they were ideas and actions up for political review. Interestingly, the regulations regarding abortion, where thequestin is usually dependent on the “rights” of the fetus, are not included with murder but with criminal threats. In this way, the law makers are forcing the issue away from a personal matter and more into the community’s problem. The reproductive rights of women are appropriated to control medical professionals. While these women’s issues are brought into the political sphere, they are also gaining theoretical equality, they have a stronger influence over the honor of the