ABSTRACT
One of the most important stages in the development of Foucault’s work is the shift from a focus on discipline to government. He describes the general development of his project in terms that are worth quoting at length. Modernity for Foucault is marked by the emergence of ‘government’ and ‘governmentality’. The reason that Foucault’s discussion of ‘government’ and ‘police’ is important for our present concern with his treatment of law is that time and again he stresses the essentially non-legal character of his expanded conception of government. Foucault’s focus is upon the emergence of a concern with ‘security’ within modern governmental rationality. The association of ‘security’ with ‘liberty’ marks not merely the rise to prominence of rights discourses but involves the idea that the systematic realisation of political and juridical rights are essential conditions of ‘good government’ which is itself a precondition for the persistence, stability and prosperity of both economic and political government.
