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This book proposes an original reading of Foucault s political thought. Far from setting aside the question of the State to focus on the relationships of power from below , the Foucauldian approach offers a radical anti-substantialist theory of the State. Concepts such as biopolitics, discipline, pastoral power, and governmentality serve as tools for understanding the statization of power relations. Contrary to some of Foucault's own statements, Skornicki highlights the elective affinities between genealogy and sociology, which enable an in-depth dialogue with Marxism, Max Weber, Norbert Elias, Edward P. Thompson, among others. Unexpectedly, the analytics of power appears thereby as a corrosive and productive science of the State. The author meticulously reconstructs, drawing on Foucault's extensive body of work, how his famous 'microphysics of power' fits into a broader genealogy of the modern State namely, the processes of political monopolization that have shaped the so-called Leviathan from the Middle Ages to the present. The State thus emerges not as the coldest of all cold monsters, nor simply as a vast apparatus of repression, but rather as both the product and the agent of multiple governmentalities, diverse rationalities, and various religious tendencies ranging from the modern rule of law to totalitarianism and neoliberal bureaucracy. This is not just a new book about Foucault. It is a book about the State and the enduring possibility of theorizing it immersed once more in the caustic waters of genealogy.
Sommario
Chapter 1. Foucault, An Unlikely Theorist Of The State.- Chapter 2. Is Genealogy A Sociology Like Any Other?.- Chapter 3. Foucault And The Sociogenesis Of Monopolies.- Chapter 4. The Mysteries And Undersides Of The Legal Order.- Chapter 5. The King And The Shepherd.- Chapter 6. Of Biopolitics Considered As Bureaucracy.- Conclusion The Antipastoral Horizon And The Politics Of Emancipation.
Info autore
Arnault Skornicki
is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Paris Nanterre, France. He is the author of
L'économiste, la cour et la patrie: L'économie politique dans la France des Lumières
(2011) and
La nouvelle Histoire des idées politiques
(with Jérôme Tournadre, 2024).
Riassunto
This book proposes an original reading of Foucault’s political thought. Far from setting aside the question of the State to focus on the relationships of power “from below”, the Foucauldian approach offers a radical anti-substantialist theory of the State. Concepts such as biopolitics, discipline, pastoral power, and governmentality serve as tools for understanding the statization of power relations. Contrary to some of Foucault's own statements, Skornicki highlights the elective affinities between genealogy and sociology, which enable an in-depth dialogue with Marxism, Max Weber, Norbert Elias, Edward P. Thompson, among others. Unexpectedly, the analytics of power appears thereby as a corrosive and productive science of the State. The author meticulously reconstructs, drawing on Foucault's extensive body of work, how his famous 'microphysics of power' fits into a broader genealogy of the modern State—namely, the processes of political monopolization that have shaped the so-called Leviathan from the Middle Ages to the present. The State thus emerges not as the coldest of all cold monsters, nor simply as a vast apparatus of repression, but rather as both the product and the agent of multiple governmentalities, diverse rationalities, and various religious tendencies—ranging from the modern rule of law to totalitarianism and neoliberal bureaucracy. This is not just a new book about Foucault. It is a book about the State and the enduring possibility of theorizing it—immersed once more in the caustic waters of genealogy.
Relazione
This study of Michel Foucault's position on the politics of power exertion on states and the societies they control, is nevertheless an erudite yet accessible discourse which both practising Foucault scholars and those merely curious about his theories will find valuable reading. Andrew Brown's translation is extremely competent on the whole . (Michel Foucault, carolahuttmann.blogspot.com, October 16, 2025)
