On Foucault and Governance

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Liberalism is a governance ideology. In contrast, Foucault presents neoliberalism as an approach that was followed in a series of market and government decisions, rather than as an ideology. These ideas, of liberalism and neoliberalism, were both explored in Michel Foucault’s manuscript The Birth of Biopolitics (Foucault 1978-1979), in the eighteenth century English context for the former, and the twentieth century American context for the latter. For the purposes of this paper, the liberalism of eighteenth century England will be referred to as ‘classical liberalism’, and the neoliberalism of twentieth century United States will be referred to simply as ‘neoliberalism’. In a nuanced way, Foucault shows that one need not subscribe to the ideals of classical liberalism in order to follow a neoliberalist approach, and vice-versa. That is, while they may often result in similar decisions being taken, there is no inherent commonality between classical liberalism and neoliberalism; they are distinct and do not depend on each other. By examining what Foucault believed classical liberalism to be, what neoliberalism was, and by drawing the distinctions between the two, it will be demonstrated that the two labels do indeed refer to distinct approaches to governance.

Classical Liberalism

On the whole, classical liberalism is thought to be an ideology of how one ought to govern. It concerns itself with questioning whether government is governing too much, or too little, with a preference for a less intrusive government leading to a tendency to challenge more on the “too much” side. Indeed, classical liberalism is an exploration of the space devoid of an overbearing government, but practical insofar that it acknowledges the need for som...

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...to produce an environment in which the economy could thrive: government’s role was to regulate the market in a way that encouraged maximum dynamism and competition. Moreover, it was taken as a way of being, part of the very essence of what it was to be an American. Foucault acknowledges these two ideas, and believes that they are indeed entities separate from one another.

Works Cited

Flew, Terry. "Michel Foucault's The Birth of Biopolitics and Contemporary Neo-Liberalism Debates." Queensland: Queensland University of Technology , 11 25, 2010.

Foucault, Michel. The Birth of Biopolitics. Edited by Arnold I. Davidson. Translated by Graham Burchell. Paris: Palgrave Macmillan, 1978-1979.

Protevi, John. "What Does Foucault Think is New About Neo-Liberalism?" Pli: Warwick Journal of Philosophy 21 (06 2009).

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