Nineteenth-century power added ‘make live and let die’ alongside sovereign right to kill

Evidence

And I think that one of the greatest transtormations political right underwent in the nineteenth century was precisely that, 1 wouldn’t say exactly that sovereignty’s old right—to take lite or let live—was replaced, but it came to be complemented by a new right which does not erase the old right but which does penetrate it, permeate it. This is the right, or rather precisely the opposite right. It is the power to “make” live and “let” die. The right of sovereignty was the right to take life or let live. And then this new right is established: the right to make live and to let die. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 256

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines biopower’s governing formula — ‘make live and let die’ — as complementing rather than erasing sovereign power’s ‘take life or let live’.
• XREF: This is the foundational biopower/biopolitics pairing the reader’s critical-theory toolkit needs; it feeds directly into necropolitics in later Islamophobia-related readings. — connects to: In sovereign narratives, emancipation and killing are bound to truth and death — Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics, 56; Sovereign power makes the subject’s very life and death depend on its will — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 255; War exercises sovereignty through the right to kill. — Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics, 7 (+3 more)

Related

• Biopower replaces sovereignty’s power over death with power over life (similarity 0.88)
• Sovereign power makes the subject’s very life and death depend on its will (similarity 0.86)
• Sovereign power over life is asymmetrical, always weighted toward killing (similarity 0.85)
• War exercises sovereignty through the right to kill. (similarity 0.81)
• Biopower takes control of life through the twin poles of body and population (similarity 0.80)
• Ritualized death faded because death escaped sovereign power’s reach (similarity 0.80)
• Mortality blocks property from becoming a true political principle. (similarity 0.79)
• Atomic power exposes the paradox of a sovereign power that kills life itself (similarity 0.79)
• In sovereign narratives, emancipation and killing are bound to truth and death (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Sovereign power makes the subject’s very life and death depend on its will #expands (0.90) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 255
• War exercises sovereignty through the right to kill. #corroborates (0.85) — Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics, 7
• Ritualized death faded because death escaped sovereign power’s reach #corroborates (0.80) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 262
• Biopower replaces sovereignty’s power over death with power over life #contradicts (0.80) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 262
• Sovereign power over life is asymmetrical, always weighted toward killing #complicates (0.75) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 255