Despite the enormous influence of Michel Foucault in gender studies, social theory, and cultural studies, his work has been relatively neglected in the study of politics. Keywords: counter-conduct, Foucault, governmentality, life conduct, rationalities, Max Weber. The semantic linking of governing ("gouverner") and modes of thought ("mentalité") indicates that it is not possible to study the technologies of power without an analysis of the political rationality underpinning them. in a political rationality: 17th and 18th century raison d'Etat, the 18th century physiocratic challenge, 18th and 19th century classical liberalism, and 20th century neoliberalism. Conduct takes on meaning beyond the form of leading and directing. They used and extended mechanisms already present in most other societies. Thus, Foucault was well acquainted with the politics of Ronald Reagan, who was then governor of California, where Foucault traveled regularly beginning in the mid-1970s. of the radical finitude of human rationality (Foucault 1970). 9 Note 2 above, 138. What we need is a new economy of power relations —the word “economy” being used in its theoretical and practical sense. Foucault viewed modern bureaucratic institutions as exuding a spirit of rationality, scientific expertise, and humane concern but as really amounting to an arbitrary exercise of power by one group over another.

Neo-liberal thought in Germany, US, and France on rethinking the rationality of government; Foucault did not agree with the idea that the welfare state could be an early version of the totalitarian state. Both of them are resolutely separated from any transcendental rationality, although Weber seems at … 17 April 2018. It begins by outlining the Foucaultian treatment of government and its implications for our understanding both of political reason in general and of liberalism as a specific rationality of government. Finally, these two concepts will be included in what Foucault called the double modern political rationality, and the persistence of this topic, in different forms, in many of his historico-philosophical analyses, and above all as the two sides of what he famously called bio-power. Foucault's treatment of Weber is outlined. It argues that Foucault's work provides both an entrée into the analysis of rationality and a template with which to approach its use in organization studies. He was against political paranoia or the fear that the state will expose its reality, but he also denied the acceptance of governmental abuses. Political actions for Foucault are thus design to offer a critique, and they may speak a universal issue that transcend nationality (such as gay rights). Reason of state is not an art of government according to divine, natural, or human laws. It doesn’t have to respect the general order of the world. For Foucault, biopolitics is political power exercised on whole populations in every aspect of human life. This chapter begins by presenting the author's reasons for writing this book on rationality. Neo-liberal thought in Germany, US, and France on rethinking the rationality of government; Foucault did not agree with the idea that the welfare state could be an early version of the totalitarian state.

of the political. Foucault advocated resistance to the political status quo and the power of … More than that: in spite of their own internal madness, they used to a large extent the ideas and the devices of our political rationality.

The question I ask is, what is political rationality? He has had strong influence not only (or even primarily) in philosophy but also in a wide range of humanistic and social scientific disciplines. Foucault, in fact, came to describe in a general way the political rationality of our present precisely through the genealogy of pastoral power as a kind of government of individuals by means of their own truth.