Foucault and the genealogy of the modern state: Governmentality and the transition from a legal perspective to the state

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD Candidate in Political Science, School of Law and Political Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.

2 -

10.22099/jls.2021.39853.4289

Abstract

From 1976 onwards, Michel Foucault began to study the state and state power in detail under the genealogy of the modern state. In the face of the linear and centralist views of power, which he saw them as a legal perspective to sovereignty, Foucault coined the concept of governmentality to analyze conflicting and often obscure roots of the present discourses, practices, and institutions. But since Foucault has dealt with this issue in a very scattered way and among his various writings and speeches, there is no coherent text in this field. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the three descendants of the modern state, namely pastoral power, reason of state and liberalism, to determine how Foucault, by adopting a different approach to power arrangements, crossed the legal perspective and created a new foundation for the study of government. This perspective, which examines the lineages of the modern state on the basis of the triangle of governmental mentalities, rationalities and technologies, makes us to consider the concept of the state as a complex, multi-temporal phenomenon and a combination of various political techniques and different styles of government. From this point of view, the genealogy of the modern state can replace the theories that, by adopting a linear, essentialist, and theological perspective, create a flawed picture of historical developments

Keywords

References

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