Foucault´s Reading of Machiavelli’s The Prince. Or the Problem of Sovereignty in the Age of the Governmentality
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.espo.19530Keywords:
Foucault, Machiavelli, Sovereignty, Statecraft, GovernmentalityAbstract
This article addresses the question of the role of sovereignty in the era of governmentality, posed by Foucault in his “Class of February 1, 1978”. It is argued that the answer to this question can be found, paradoxically, where the French author refused to search: in the writings of Machiavelli. The article offers a reconstruction of Foucault´s reading of Machiavelli´s The Prince focusing on his take on sovereignty and statecraft. From an ethical-political and hermeneutical approach, the article aims to outline the shortcomings of Foucault´s interpretation, arguing that a direct reading of Machiavelli would have allowed him a more expedite arrival at the kind of political historicism that questioned contract and liberal theories of sovereignty.
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