Beyond histories of the present

Bibliographic Data

ID24304525
AuthorsUnknown author
Year1998
Volume27
Issue4
Pages333-352
Publication date1998-11-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEconomy and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-5147 • E-ISSN: 1469-5766
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03085149800000024
OpenAlexW2495954468
LanguageEN
Citations received29
References cited27

A group of leading critical writers in the school of govenrmentality studies have recently called for a debate over the methoddological and political direction of studies of complex mode of government beyond confines of the State. This paper traces the divisions within the field to Foucault's ambiguous methodological legacy, in paraticular to an impoverished theorization of sovereignty. Rather, this paper emphasizes its centripetal function, within and between nation states, in maintaining hybrid forms of liberal rule in the effort to manage the centrifugal tendencies endemic in a pluralist liberal order. These modes of rule operate in tension with the role of liberalism as critique. On the basis of this analysis, it is argued that radical critique within this field is limited, erroneuously distances critique from liberlism and would be unduly restrictive for governmentality theorists who with to perform a more central role as public intellectuals. Liberalism could once more be the principal focus for a normatively comitted form governmentality studies, which in turn, could emerge as its principal vehicla for immanent critque and renewal.

critique of liberalism · Governmentality · immanent critique · Liberalism · Michel foucault · Nation state · Pluralism · public intellectuals · Sovereignty · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Globalization and political ideologies · Political Theology and Sovereignty