Governmentality

Foucault's Notion of Government

In a series of lectures and writings in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Foucault's governmentality approach arises out of his earlier conceptualization of power and his examination of sexuality. Foucault begins by reframing the commonly held notion of “government”—which referred to the sovereign state and its institutional apparatuses—instead embracing an earlier (16th-century) and broader definition. In “The Subject and Power,” Foucault explains that the exercise of power lies in guiding the possibility of conduct and arranging the possible outcome. Power, he argues, lies not so much in the relationship between two adversaries, but is a question of government. In the 16th-century sense, government comprised legitimate forms of political or economic subjection and modes of action that structured the possible actions of others.

Such “conduct of conduct” is examined through the lens of Foucault's understanding of power, thereby acknowledging the institutional forms of power, but also the “capillaries of power” and the indirect forms of governing “at a distance.” Central to this notion of government is its calculated nature. For example, Foucault approvingly quotes the 16th-century writer Guillaume La Perrière, who explains, “Government is the right disposition of things, arranged so as to lead to a convenient end.”

Emergence of Governmentality

Central to the notion of governmentality is the process that Foucault refers to as the “governmentalization of the state,” by which he means the long-term inscription of sovereign power into calculative, administrative practices for the formation and regulation of individuals and collectives.

Foucault locates the emergence of governmentality—or the “art of government”—in 16th-century debates about the “reason of state.” In these debates, Foucault argues, we see a shift in the focus of state rulers from geographical territory to population. Where once rulers' sole occupation was with territory, they now become interested in the population, its wealth, and its health, as these are increasingly viewed as reflective of the power and health of the nation-state.

Foucault notes a range of political activities and innovations that reflect this governmental focus on the wealth and health of the population. Mercantilism, which emphasizes the dependence of national prosperity on the supply of capital, operated in the 16th to the 18th centuries. Another development is Cameralism, or German Polizeiwissenschaft (science of police). It operated in the 17th and 18th centuries as a calculated form of administering the population through detailed rules and regulations to enhance the order and well-being of the populace. The emergence and rapid growth of statistics—also known as “science of state” and “political arithmetic”—reflects the growing governmental interest in the population. Moreover, the collection and analysis of statistics leads to realization and reinforcement of the notion that both the population and the economy are dynamic and independent entities with their own regularities. In “Governmentality,” Foucault expounds on the ways in which statistics reveal cycles of death and disease, plenty and famine, wealth and poverty.

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