Sources of governmentality

Abstract

The article scrutinizes Michel Foucault's interpretation of Machiavelli in his famous lecture on governmentality. Foucault is slightly misguided in his search for the origins of governmentality, the article asserts. Foucault gives credit for the development of what he calls a new art of government to anti-Machiavellian treatises, but also follows those treatises in their distorted interpretation of Machiavelli. Consequently, Foucault's analysis gets confused and regards as novel those arguments and developments that were essentially of ancient pedigree compared with Machiavelli's ideas. The article discusses especially two points in Foucault's interpretation of Machiavelli: Foucault's insistence on the singularity of the prince in Machiavelli and the importance of territory to Machiavelli. In both of these points Foucault is beside the mark. Foucault's interpretation inverts the development of an art of government and regards as new those ideas that were fundamentally reactionary vis-à-vis Machiavelli's ideas. The article suggests that a more viable lead in searching for an art of government might be found from Machiavelli's writings and the republican experience of the late medieval Italian city-states rather than from the birth of administrative monarchies of the 16th and 17th centuries. Therefore, the article concludes that Foucault is somewhat misled in contextualizing the birth of governmentality, a view which also has some wider implications for the whole framework of governmentality Foucault is trying to develop.

Faut-il défendre la société ? Foucault, la guerre et les métaphores selon lesquelles nous vivons

“…Foucault je nerijetko interpretirao Machiavellijeva Vladara. Prije nego što Machiavelli, barem u tom djelu, postaje slijep za guvernmentalnost, ono što danas nazivamo javnim politikama, za razliku od njegovih kritičara (vidi Korvela, 2012), Machiavelli se pojavljuje kao dobar metodolog političke znanosti. Dakle, kao Foucaultov saveznik i, sasvim kanonski, veliki inovator političke znanosti: moć je niz odnosa sila, koncepcija koju samo treba proširiti do u kapilare društva.…”