Why Foucault Is Not a Neoliberalist

Abstract

It has almost become trendy to argue that Foucault in his later years turned into a neoliberalist who celebrates individualism as against collectivism and places spontaneous action in the marketplace and inside human communities in an opposition to the exercise of strong and rational statecraft from above. Indeed, Foucault is sympathetic toward neoliberalism, because it:

• puts limits on raison d’état;

• places problematization before politicization;

• approaches the problem of political power and freedom from the inside out; and

• conceives of democratic development as dependent on creating a virtuous circle of governance and engagement between political authorities and laypeople in their political communities.