Either unfreedom or death? A genealogy of the “freedom or survival” discourse

Abstract

This paper aims at highlighting the genealogy of what we may arguably consider as the ongoing shrinking of post-war democratic achievement in Western liberal democracies. In focusing on the 21st century, it analyzes the way threat, freedom and democracy have been redefined in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks in order to legitimize liberty-restricting rules, and seeks to show how this radical reframing of liberal democracy has been further enhanced during the management of the pandemic crisis as part of a constantly evolving political blackmail to citizens confronted with the dilemma “freedom or survival”.