Hygiecracy

Hygiecracy is a political philosophy. Specifically, it is a critique of democracy that posits that conditions of actual justice are indistinct from conditions of actual health - actual health is a critical notion of health involving analyses of history, society, and economics, among other things. Because political legitimacy requires that democracy be constrained by justice (otherwise democracy is simply majority rule, might makes right, or the rule of force), the theory holds that democracies must create the objective conditions of health or forfeit their legitimacy.
Among other things, hygiecracy begins from a radical interpretation of the ancient legal maxim salus populi suprema lex esto - the health of the people should be the supreme law. Because the maxim is a constitutional metanorm, nullifying that which conflicts with it, if the health of the people is the supreme law, then whatever is against the health of the people is against the law. However, this applies only to questions of public health. So long as it does not infringe on the health of the public, private health is outside of this framework. As such, though it may be contrary to a person's health, smoking marijuana, for example, is entirely hygiecratic. On the other hand, an economic system that systematically deprives people of their health because of excessive work, or pollution, is not hygiecratic, and therefore illegitimate.
According to this interpretation of the maxim, conditions of poverty, malnourishment, sleep deprivation, and all other conditions that are contrary to optimal health, are against the supreme law. Those governments, societies, organizations, etc. that allow conditions of disease to persist are complicit in maintaining conditions of disease, and are in violation of the supreme law. Moreover, the argument that the creation of conditions of health is the duty of society gives rise to positive rights - such as rights to housing, education, transportation, leisure, and health care, among others.
According to the hygiecratic argument, capitalism and all other forms of social organization that rely on domination, coercion, and other active as well as passive harms that promote disease and subvert ease (which is an aspect of health) are against the supreme law.
Etymology
The term hygiecracy is derived from the name Hygieia, the daughter of Asclepius. Known by the Romans as Salus, Hygieia was the goddess of healing.

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