Legal form became liberalism’s regulatory instrument for its generality, not for jurisprudential reasons.

Evidence

Undoubtedly liberalism does IJ,ot derive from juridical thought any more than it does from an economic analysis. It is not born from the idea of a political society founded on a contractual bond. Rather, in the search for a liberal technology of government, it emerged that the juridical form was a far more effective instrument of regulation than the wisdom or moderation of governors. … Regulation has not been sought in the “law” because of the supposedly natural legalism of liberalism, but because the law defines forms ofgeneral intervention excluding particular, individual, and exceptional measures, and because participation of the governed indrawingup1:he-law ina parliamentary system is the most effective system of governmental economy. — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 1595

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains why liberalism turns to law instrumentally: law’s generality rules out particular, discriminatory interventions.