Foucault’s political coordinates cannot capture neoliberalism’s effects on democracy

Evidence

Insofar as Foucault’s investigation and analysis of neoliberalism is driven by a concern with the birth of biopolitics, by shifts from sovereignty to governmentality, and by reformations of liberalism, these coordinates are insufficient for capturing what neoliberalism has done to social life, culture, subjectivity, and, above all, politics. This points to a broader limitation in Foucault’s work, which we might call his “formulation of the political,” a formulation that is largely limited to the (ironically, state-centered) terms of “sovereignty” and “juridicism.” — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 146

Categorization

• DEFINE: Brown introduces her distinctive critical concept, ‘Foucault’s formulation of the political,’ as a diagnosis of a blind spot she will build her book around.
• XREF: connects to: Foucault’s biopolitics resembles but misleads analysis of everyday neoliberalism — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 262; Foucault frames neoliberalism as a remaking of liberal governmentality rather than an economic break — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 87; Foucault ignored neoliberalism’s material politics and focused on its transformations of the subject — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 94 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• The political rationality framing extends Foucault beyond what he himself wrote #complicates (0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 231
• Neoliberal governability extends beyond what Foucault imagined through maximum freedom #complicates (0.80) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 215