Liberal government and authoritarianism

Bibliographic Data

ID2159271
AuthorsM Dean (0000-0002-5213-2115, corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume31
Issue1
Pages37-61
Publication date2002-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEconomy and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-5147 • E-ISSN: 1469-5766
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03085140120109240
OpenAlexW2026000492
LanguageEN
Citations received193
References cited2

This paper examines the intelligibility of authoritarian measures within Foucauldian analyses of the liberal government of the state. Such measures are understood as following from a liberal understanding of the task of government itself. This understanding rests on a distinction between the legal and political order (of 'the state') and a 'liberal police' of what is exterior to it, classically conceived as 'civil society'. The relation between these two aspects is conceived as a series of 'foldings' between the two sides of a liberal governing, which turn the injunction to govern through freedom into a set of binding obligations potentially or actually enforceable by coercive or sovereign instruments. The paper places this perspective within aspects of the genealogies of economy, poverty, welfare and police and discusses the trajectories of such foldings in the present. Keywords: LiberalismGovernmentAuthoritarianismFreedomLiberal Police

Authoritarianism · Democracy · Economic system · Economics · Government (linguistics · Linguistics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Law · Philosophy · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Political Philosophy and Ethics