Socialist responsibilization: the government of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases in the German Democratic Republic in the 1970s

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe article explores the importance of responsible self-government in a ‘non-liberal’ society. Drawing on governmentality and critical ability studies, it argues that the governmental technique of individual responsibilization usually associated with a (neo-)liberal social order constituted an important means of state-socialist rule as well. Furthermore, this article shows that applying such an analytical framework to the investigation of the German Democratic Republic’s government of cardiovascular diseases significantly enhances our understanding of power relations between the state and the individual. Cardiovascular diseases had become a major focus of health policy by the late 1960s. East Germany’s orientation toward the World Health Organization strongly favored the adoption of the risk factor approach originally developed by US epidemiological research. According to this paradigm that centered on individual behaviors as risk factors, health education campaigns sought to enable citizens to modify their self-conduct. Focusing on the problematization of too little physical activity, this article examines cardiovascular able-bodiedness as a norm and vanishing point of responsible self-government on the basis of a detailed analysis and contextualization of health education films. Finally, it argues that the performance of a successful government of individual risk factors was rewarded by increased recognition as a good and productive citizen as well as a ‘socialist personality.’