CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2016
| Author | Lafferton, Sára |
|---|---|
| Title | Why Do States Regulate the Entry of Foreign Professionals into Healthcare? A Hybrid Approach to Sovereignty |
| Summary | In this thesis I address the puzzle why states regulate the entry of foreign professionals into healthcare. I approach this problem building on two leading understandings of state sovereignty. One is juridical, implied in Kenneth Waltz’s theory of international politics, and is best reflected in the neorealist thinking in the discipline of international relations. The other is biopolitical, developed by Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault, applied first in critical social theory. I show that the juridical approach clarifies why states regulate policy domains that are strategically important to protect their own way of life, and the biopolitical accounts for the distinct attention states pay to the life and well-being of their population. Then, I approach the question historically, in order to reconstruct when France and the United Kingdom started to introduce the regulations concerned. Finally, I offer Giorgio Agamben’s theory as a hybrid approach that shows why both law and life are fundamental to state sovereignty and which also accounts for the regulation on foreign health workers. I arrive at the conclusion that the conceptual foundations of the modern European nation–state are challenged, and the source of this challenge is, paradoxically, the nation–state itself by depriving its citizens of their political existence. |
| Supervisor | Astrov, Alexander |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2016/lafferton_sara.pdf |
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