The state’s governmentality in Foucault: a modern problem

Abstract

This article aims to point out some of the implications of the appearance of governmental perspective in Michel Foucault’s work. To achieve that objective, we will specify some predicates associated with the concepts of “governance” and “governmentality”, and its relations with certain significant notions such as “power” and “conduct”. We will review the methodological assumptions adopted by Foucault as he looks to the State as an inquiry object. We will explain why, in the interpretation proposed by the author, the governmentality of the State plays the role of a specifically modern problem. Finally, we will highlight the link between the emergence of governmentality and the form of critical thinking that involves a commitment to the present time, that intellectual practice identified by Foucault as a characteristic of the Enlightenment.