Security, Territory, Population
| Author | Michel Foucault |
|---|---|
| Translator | Graham Burchell |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Published | St Martin's Press |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Security, Territory, Population is a part of a lecture series given by French philosopher Michel Foucault at the Collège de France between 1977 and 1978 and published posthumously based on audio recordings. In it, Foucault examines the notion of biopolitics as a new technology of power over populations that is distinct from punitive disciplinary systems, by tracing the history of governmentality, from the first centuries of the Christian era to the emergence of the modern nation state. These lectures illustrate a radical turning point in Foucault's work in which a shift to the problematic of the government of self and others occurred.
Foucault tries to trace the 'government of things' in relation to modern society, starting with Niccolò Machiavelli The Prince and its reception The anti-Machiavellian literature wanted to replace the ability of the prince to hold on to his principality with something entirely new: an art of government. Foucault then notices that this art of government were internal to society itself, not external, this type of self-government was practiced right throughout European society; such as Italy, Germany, France, etc. which was seized upon by the modern nation state from which it took up as its central practices. This is from as early as the 16th century which in due course enabled the elimination of the sovereign prince as a transcendental, singularity figure of Machiavelli's prince.
All of society was enmeshed within this process including the prince (ruler) himself, thus a century later government became political and collaborative with economy (modern political science as its 'rational' spokesman) and its partnership with political economy. Foucault further notices that political economy had a new tool called statistics founded by the Physiocrats economists (another term for scientific government) and it is with François Quesnay that this process can be found the very notion of economic government. So, according to a text quoted by Foucault written by Guillaume de La Perrière "government is the right disposition of things arranged so as to lead a suitable end."
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