Accounting and the management of power: Napoleon’s occupation of the Commune of Ferrara (1796-1799)

This chapter discusses the Foucauldian linearity between political discourses, forms of rationality and technologies of government, in the relationship between State and citizens. The chapter is based on the case of the Commune of Ferrara (Cisalpine Republic) during the first Napoleonic occupation of Italy. It identifies a decoupling between the “political discourses, rhetoric and language” and the use of “technologies of government” to sustain the French warfare. The results enhance our understanding of the demise of the revolutionary principles in the occupied territories and shed light on the translation of politics and power into a set of calculative practices for surveillance purposes.