Political economy replaced equitable justice with maximum-minimum self-limitation in government

Evidence

So, with political economy we enter an age whose principle could be this: A government is never sufficiently aware that it always risks governing too much, or, a government never lmows too well how to govern just enough. The principle of maximum/minimum replaces the notion of equitable equilibrium, of ~‘equitablejustice” that previously organized the prince’s wisdom. With this question of self-limitation by the principle of truth, I think political economy introduced a formidable wedge into the unlimited presumption of the police state. — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 248

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names the core shift in governing principle introduced by political economy: the maximum/minimum principle displacing equitable equilibrium.
• XREF: Connects to Foucault’s genealogical method across his other domain studies (madness, delinquency, sexuality). — connects to: Liberalism means the deliberate self-limitation of governmental reason — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 262; Political economy founded itself on the impossibility of an economic sovereign — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 1456

Broader Connections

• Liberalism means the deliberate self-limitation of governmental reason #qualifies (0.92) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 262
• Political economy founded itself on the impossibility of an economic sovereign #expands (0.88) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 1456