TRUMPISMO E SOVRANITÀ ALGORITMICA/TRUMPISM AND ALGORITHMIC SOVEREIGNTY

Abstract

This editorial interprets Trumpism as a new form of governmentality that, rather than constituting a break with neoliberalism, represents one of its most radical authoritarian developments. Starting from the global crisis of liberal democracies and the growing concentration of executive power, the article argues that Trumpism embodies a new configuration of sovereignty grounded in the convergence of the state, Big Tech, artificial intelligence, and data capitalism. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s genealogy of neoliberalism, the authors contend that digital technologies promise to overcome the cognitive limits that historically justified the market as the primary mechanism of social coordination. Through the large-scale collection and processing of data, knowledge and decision-making can be recentralized within a new regime of “algorithmic sovereignty.” Figures such as Peter Thiel and corporations such as Palantir exemplify this transformation, combining predictive analytics, surveillance infrastructures, and monopolistic forms of power. In this perspective, Trumpism is understood as a project of total mobilization directed toward both internal and external enemies, relying on the fusion of political authority and technological oligarchies. The editorial thus frames Trumpism as a strategic mutation of neoliberalism, one that reconfigures market rationality into an increasingly centralized, illiberal, and technologically mediated form of rule.

Davide Borrelli insegna Sociologia dei processi culturali all’Università Suor Orsola Benincasa di Napoli. Studioso di storia dei media e delle industrie culturali, da anni conduce ricerche sulle trasformazioni dei sistemi universitari, occupandosi in particolare di studi critici sulla valutazione. Tra le sue pubblicazioni: Il filo dei discorsi. Teoria e storia sociale del telefono (Sossella), L’industria culturale. Tracce e immagini di un privilegio (con Alberto Abruzzese, Carocci), Pensare i media. I classici delle scienze sociali e la comunicazione (Carocci), Contro l’ideologia della valutazione. L’ANVUR e l’arte della rottamazione dell’università (Jouvence), Gemelli diversi. Processi di soggettivazione ed economia di mercato (con Emiliano Bevilacqua, DeriveApprodi).

Christian Laval est Professeur émérite de sociologie à l’Université Paris Nanterre. Ses travaux portent sur l’utilitarisme, le néolibéralisme, la pensée de Marx et les alternatives au capitalisme. Il a publié une histoire de la pensée économique, L’Homme économique (2007) et une histoire de la sociologie classique, L’ambition sociologique (2012). Il a co-écrit avec Pierre Dardot plusieurs ouvrages dont La nouvelle raison du monde (2009), Commun, (2014), Dominer (2018) et Instituer les mondes (2025). Il s’est intéressé aux politiques éducatives néolibérales. Il est l’auteur de L’école n’est pas une entreprise (2003, La nouvelle école capitaliste (2011) et Éducation démocratique (2021). En 2025, il a publié un premier roman, Marx en Amérique.

Nilton Ken Ota is PhD in Sociology from the University of São Paulo (USP). Professor at the Institute of Psychology, USP. Associated researcher at the international laboratory Mondes en transition (MeT) - IRL2034 (CNRS/USP), and at the Sophiapol laboratory of Université Paris-Nanterre. Research group coordinator at the Institute of Advanced Studies (IEA/USP). Member of the Interdisciplinary Researchers Network and the Neoliberalism and Alternatives Study Group (GENA).