Neoliberal governability extends beyond what Foucault imagined through maximum freedom

Evidence

Foucault was alert to this possibility; he described homo oeconomicus as “someone … eminently governable … the correlate of a governmentality … determined according to the principle of economy.” But he did not fathom the extreme to which this governability could go in a neoliberal regime, an extreme expressed through the formula of maximum governance through maximum individual freedom. In place of the liberal promise to secure the politically autonomous and sovereign subject, the neoliberal subject is granted no guarantee of life (on the contrary, in markets, some must die for others to live), and is so tethered to economic ends as to be potentially sacrificible to them. — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 215

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the paradoxical neoliberal formula: maximum governance achieved through maximum individual freedom rather than restraint.
• DEEPTHINKING: Dense, paradigm-shifting contrast between liberal autonomy and the sacrificial neoliberal subject — the claim that homo oeconomicus is sacrificible for economic ends overturns the freedom narrative.
• XREF: Connects to Foucault’s own ‘The Birth of Biopolitics’ and its treatment of homo oeconomicus, where governability through economy is already sketched. — connects to: Foucault frames neoliberalism as a remaking of liberal governmentality rather than an economic break — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 87; Foucault’s political coordinates cannot capture neoliberalism’s effects on democracy — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 146; Neoliberal freedom can be a vehicle for governance and domination — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 153 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Neo-neoliberalism extends privatized preference beyond all limits and finitude. #expands (0.80)
• The political rationality framing extends Foucault beyond what he himself wrote #expands (0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 231
• Foucault’s account of neoliberalism missed its transnational and postnational dimensions #responds-to (0.72) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 144
• The dominant social regime has shifted from discipline to achievement, rendering Foucault obsolete. #complicates (0.70) — Byung-Chul Han, The Burnout Society, 26