Protocols as a Tool for Government

This book draws a genealogy of the concept of ‘protocol’. It examines the main functions that different objects called ‘protocols’ play in the contemporary world: acting as law-like devices which regulate delicate and strategic fields of politics and society. The book opens by assessing the historical origins of the word ‘protocol’, proposes a typology of protocols, and highlights the three main actions of these devices: formalising, standardising, and certifying. It then stresses the ways that protocols are employed as governing devices, their use as policy instruments, their role within capitalism, and the power they contain. The book concludes by analysing protocol as a method for managing many aspects of social life. The politics of protocols and the dilemmas they present, especially within crisis and emergency scenarios and with regard to the field of medicine, are also discussed. The book will appeal to scholars and students of public policy, sociology, political philosophy and the theory of law.