EL MIEDO EN LAS SOCIEDADES MÁS SEGURAS DE LA HISTORIA

Abstract

This work tackles the phenomenon of the reaction produced in recent years in the relationship between the values of liberty and security in the democratic tradition. After 11 September 2001, the strategy of the war on terror substituted the logic of the “State of Law” for the “State under siege” using the old appeal to the fear of the other and the paradoxical retreat within an ever more reduced ourselves, even in societies which boast of their universalism. Between the fear of the threat abroad and the fear of the enemy within, the rejection of immigration is growing, construed as a problem-obstacle. The author shows how the present economic crisis has become an added factor that has multiplied the discourses about the urgency of offering suitable responses to immigration. The present responses opt for a legal logic of emergency, of derogation, or at least suspension, of some of the principles and rules of State of Law when trying to regulate the legal status of those who are identified as a threat.