Drug use and the constitution of homo politicus in Swedish politics 1966–1979

•Political recognition is conditioned and regulated by political structures.•Drug use has been seen as a threat to the democratic order.•The drug user has been constituted as the other of homo politicus.•The drug user has been seen as individualistic, passive, and unable to cooperate.•Homo politicus has been seen as cooperative, active, and embedded in a community. The emergence of the drug user as a political problem in Sweden during the 1960s presented politicians with the problem of how to fit this new character into the existing democratic order. The aim of this article is to examine how Swedish politics sought to regulate democratic participation by establishing norms that conditioned who is recognized as a political subject as well as what counts as political speech and action. The analysis is based on a close reading of parliamentary debates, political motions, and public reports and covers the period 1966–1979. During the examined period, Swedish politics constituted the ideal subject of democratic politics, homo politicus, as a subject embedded in a community of active and politically conscious citizens endowed with the capacity to cooperate and engage in the collective formulation of the common good. Drug use therefore posed a threat to the democratic order due to its passivizing effects that inhibited the cooperation needed to uphold the democratic polity. The perceived individualism, passivity, and inability of the drug user to engage in cooperation within a politically conscious community of citizens positioned the drug user as a threat to the democratic order. The drug user thereby became a useful figure in the political regulation of the democratic sphere and the constitution of homo politicus, the ideal subject of democratic politics.