Socialism lacks an intrinsic art of government and must invent one

Evidence

With regard to all forms of real socialism, of every-socialism implemented in policy, we should not ask what text it refers to, whether or not it betrays the text, whether or not-it conforms to’ the text, or whether it is true or false. We should simply and always ask socialism: So, what is this necessarily extrinsic governmentality that makes you function and only within which you can function? … Is there a governmentality appropriate to socialism? What governmentality is possible as a strictly;intrinsically, and autonomously socialistgovernmentality? In any case, we know only that if there is a really socialist governmentality, then it is not hidden within socialism and its texts. It cannot be deduced from them. It must be invented. — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 586

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader genealogy-of-governmentality thread running through the whole lecture course. — connects to: Planned direction alone cannot define socialism, or Pharaohs’ economies would qualify — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 240; Socialist internationalism lacked a device to become a working political concept among sovereign states — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 156; A coherent imperial ideology need not produce effective rule (+3 more)
• SEED: An essay angle: questioning the ‘textualism’ of political movements that anchor legitimacy in canonical texts rather than in a practice of governing.

Broader Connections

• Law cannot create a nation that lacks material productive capacities #exemplifies (0.85) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 235
• Socialist internationalism lacked a device to become a working political concept among sovereign states #expands (0.78) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 156
• Modern power lacks an organizing logic as one of its defining features #corroborates (0.78)
• Ethical critiques of capitalism undermine the very socialism they advocate #complicates (0.72) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 466
• A coherent imperial ideology need not produce effective rule #corroborates (0.70)