Foucault’s biopolitics as neoliberalism and the twenty-first century

Abstract

In this article, the author articulates Foucault’s theory of biopolitics as neoliberalism and argues that it is simultaneously the most comprehensive theory of biopolitics and the most instructive theory for political philosophy in the twenty-first century. More precisely, the analysis of biopolitical governmentality in Foucault’s different works reveals the continuation between the archeology of knowledge and genealogy of power, bringing forth the issue of political subjectivity and politics per se. It is argued that Foucault’s project presents an unfinished project of Modernity and that, as such, it opens the possibility of a different rationality with the affirmation of the idea of legitimacy. The movement from sovereignty to biopolitics for Foucault is relevant as the destruction of the legal system and the distancing from philosophy. Furthermore, these are key characteristics of the new Western discourse which at the same time is structured on the system of binary oppositions and discloses itself as a counter-history. In Foucault’s project by contrast, the potentiality for a new political subjectivity arises from the interrelations between scientific knowledge and knowledge of the people (local memories). Political realism is the result of his elaboration of utilitarian vs revolutionary course. Finally, contemporary phenomena of biopolitics are presented, most notably Western ‘humanitarian interventions’, political trials, the control and regulation of population in the Coronavirus crisis, bioterror, and the artificial difference between democracy and authoritarianism.