Vida, política y deseo: del poder soberano a la gubernamentalidad neoliberal

Abstract

Foucault coined the paradigmatic opposition with regard to the relationship between life and politics: under the model of sovereignty, the sovereign let live and make die, while under the rule of the security mechanisms, power makes live and let die. At the same time, the way of confronting the desire under both models is radically different. Under the logic of the sovereign power, the problem is how to slow the natural desire and harnessing it for the limits of legality. On the other hand, under the logic of neo-liberal governmentality, the Government of the people is facing the opposite problem, i.e. how to let desire flow, under the principle that if every individual pursues his self-interest, it will ensure the happiness of society. We would like to show that under the contractual conception, politics understood as an artifice, at the time that restricts the desire, protects life. While under the rule of political economy, which is a part of liberal governamentality, the free flowing of desire escapes to the limitation of politics, while life is left to the avatar of the law of the market.