Béatrice Hibou

Béatrice Hibou is a French political scientist, research director and teacher at Sciences Po. She studies political economy and trade policy with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and the Maghreb, the role of market forces in shaping state policies and structure and how that affects people's lives.

Education and positions Hibou attended Sciences Po, obtaining her undergraduate degree in 1987. In 1995, Hibou graduated from The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences with a doctorate in economics. Her doctoral dissertation was entitled Économie politique de la protection en Afrique (The political economy of protection in Africa), and used a Weberian framework to study trade policy in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her thesis supervisor was Jean Coussy. Hibou was the editor of the 1999 book La Privatisation des États (The privatization of states). The book studied the ongoing process of privatization around the world, studying the trend across many countries to give private companies control over functions that had previously been the prerogative of the state.

In 2006 she published the book La force de l'obéissance. Économie politique de la répression en Tunisie (The Force of Obedience: The Political Economy of Repression in Tunisia), which was based on field work that she conducted in Tunisia between 1997 and 2005. The book studied subjugation in Tunisia beyond the readily apparent authoritarian repression, focusing instead on how the economy systemically subjugated Tunisians during that period under the pretense of voluntary work.

Hibou's 2011 book, Anatomie politique de la domination (Political anatomy of domination), analysed and compared types of authoritarian governments. The book was reviewed in Le Monde. Libération, and The Diplomat.

Hibou developed an idea of bureaucratie néolibérale (neoliberal bureaucracy) which consists of the systematic use of standards, rules, procedures, and norms that are derived primarily from the market or the world of business and have an impact on daily life. This mechanism enables the liberal market to formally impose itself on fields which are not obviously connected to it, such as the field of education. Hibou has been a member of the editorial board of Politique africaine, Critique internationale, and the Karthala book series Les Afriques. Although Roland Marchal was released on 20 March 2020, Fariba Adelkhah has remained a prisoner in Iran and Béatrice Hibou still appears, as a member of the support committee, in French and international media outlets, where she explains, in particular, the development of the case, the conditions of detention in Iran and more broadly, the issues of scientific freedom.

Selected works L'Afrique est-elle protectionniste?: les chemins buissonniers de la libéralisation extérieure La Privatisation des États, editor (1999) La force de l'obéissance. Économie politique de la répression en Tunisie (2006) Anatomie politique de la domination, La découverte (2011) La bureaucratisation du monde à l'ère néolibérale, La découverte (2012)