Abstract
This paper proposes a cross-reading between Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory and the studies on neoliberal governmentality inspired by Michel Foucault. Instead of suggesting a deficit in the autopoiesis of systems, the text advances the hypothesis that neoliberalism is expressed in the form of a colonization of the operational mechanisms of functional systems: law and politics, especially, are taken by a specific economic rationality that governs their forms of self-reference (reflexivity and reflection) and hetero-reference (second-order observation, mainly by science). Due to this specific colonization of the autopoiesis of functional systems, neoliberal rationality paradoxically maintains functional differentiation but restricts its assumptions: a degree of social inclusion and systemic disintegration that allows maintaining the distinction between economic, political and legal codes and programs.
Keywords
systems theory; autopoiesis; governamentality; neoliberalism; systemic colonization